British Accents. Twin Swapping. And Mango Sticky Rice.

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Some years ago I had a friend move from sunny San Diego to gloomy London England for a job. She was super excited about the move, whereas we were sad to see her go. It’s been over 5 years now, and every time she comes “home” to visit us, we laugh at the terms she has inadvertently started using since her move. Like, “Hey, do you know where the lift is here?” or “I’m here on holiday.” We point it out, and over the years the pink tinge that would naturally manifest itself has dimmed, now she just shrugs and says “What you gonna do?” Her American accent is a great mix of San Diego breezy and classy British accent. I love it, because it confuses the hell out of people.

Since her move, I have been trying to master the British accent. I’ve gotten pretty good, and I’ll randomly speak with the accent when bored or when I’m dared. One afternoon, I was talking to a coworker about how she was visiting and I was making fun of the confused look on a waiters face when she asked to use the “loo”.  I was impersonating her and her accent when my boss walked in and heard the end of the conversation. He laughed and stated that my accent was good. So as we headed for lunch, he dared me to speak with a British accent and said if I kept it up he would cover dinner. If there is one thing my boss knows about me, it’s that I don’t like losing bets, so I chose the most expensive Thai place around and in my most posh British accent accepted the challenge.

We were seated fairly quickly and the youngish waiter came over to serve us water while we looked at the menu, my boss thanked him, smiled and nodded as he walked away. My boss figured I was giving up, and grinned at me shaking his head. The waiter returned and asked if we were ready to order. Again I nodded then smiled, and proceeded to order the most expensive chicken item on the menu in my perfect British accent. My boss chuckled and ordered his food, before the waiter left, I decided to lay it on thick.”Love, would you be a dear and also get me a Thai tea?” The young man smiled so big, and ran off to put in our order. I was about to break character when the waiter ran back with my drink order, and proceeded to ask me where I was from. My boss lightly nudged my foot with his own, while I proceeded to lie through my teeth with a British accent. I said I had been born here but had a father who worked in London and proceeded to answer question after ejection about my childhood abroad.

The young waiter told me that he loved my accent and that our food would  be out shortly. My boss completely lost it until the table next to us decided that they would ask me questions that I’m sure influenced when they would be traveling to London in the upcoming year. Lies that may well have had them book their trip during the rain season. If those strangers somehow find this I’m sorry I sent you during the rainiest and coldest time of the year. So I ate my whole meal, and chatted with an over the top accent for the rest of our time in the restaurant. As soon as I walked out of the restaurant I  high fived my boss who was impressed that I was able to keep up our banter for over an hour. To this day when my boss calls me, we both answer “Hallo Govenor” like the jackasses we are.

Pretending to be someone I wasn’t on purpose was fun because I wasn’t going to lose anything. In fact it was the opposite, I was going to gain the respect of my boss and a free Thai meal, mango sticky rice dessert and all. Had the stakes been higher I wonder if I would have cracked under pressure. It was a simple bet with simple stipulations and a clear goal. Accent ment free food. And who doesn’t love free food? I thought of this day as I read Penny Reid’s new novel Motion, a novel about twins with a long list of obstacles and one goal, swap places and don’t let their parents find out that twin 1 is in jail for god know what.

In this twin swap novel, Mona DaVinci, gets a phone call from her twin sister who is in jail and needs Mona to do something that she knows she will take some convincing. She needs Mona to pretend to be her while she is in jail so her parents don’t find out and cut her off financially. If Mona agrees, she will have to go to their parents brownstone and check in with Abram the young man who is house sitting, and has been asked to watch Lisa for a week until they arrive back to the states.

Like most movies about twins, the idea of switching places should be easy enough as they already look identical, but for Mona and Lisa, that is where the similarities end. Lisa who is often seen on TMZ for her party girl ways has nothing in common with her sister who has lived apart from her since they were in their teens. Mona is a genius and until that moment all of her focus had been on her education and career, and in doing so has missed out on a lot of basic teen and young adult experiences. Lisa however, has taken life and done as she has always wanted, not caring about consequences. So, upon arriving home with little to no information about Lisa arrest Mona decides that the easiest way to not get caught is to avoid spending any real time with Abram. But avoiding Abram is proving harder than Mona thought. After each interaction, Mona questions how much longer she will be able to pretend to be Her sister without anyone figuring out that the real Lisa is behind bars. But how long will this be able to last? Or will Mona’s growing feelings for Abram get Lisa disowned?

Be warned dear reader, this is only book 1 of 3 and I can hardly wait to see how this cliffhanger continues in book 2 and 3!

Download your copy today!
Amazon: https://amzn.to/2T5iZto
AppleBooks: https://apple.co/2QYvTaB
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/Motion
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Kobo: http://bit.ly/2ASuOfq
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2DoH8pv
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/2T4ebo9
Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2U1pnSv

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A Sure Thing

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There are a few things in life that I can say are sure things, like how I will always forget to fill my gas tank on Sunday night, which means I will be late to work on Monday. Or, the fact that I will get at least one creepy message on my Match account. I keep telling myself that one of these things I can control because it’s a sure thing, and the other isn’t going to change anytime soon, because there are way too many creeps out there.
One Monday morning as I was driving to work I began an Audible book by Jana Aston. I had read Wrong by her a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I decided to give Sure Thing a chance. It was after all, going to be an extra long commute as it was “raining” in San Diego, and well, we are idiots who don’t know how to deal with any kind of weather. Like anything other than 72 degrees, makes us panic. If it’s too hot we panic, if it’s too cold we bitch. But God help us all if it rains. We legitimately turn into accident prone idiots. Every single one of us. If the rain wasn’t enough to make me unhappy, my nearly empty gas tank did it. I was officially unhappy.
But after the Audible intro the book began, Andries appeared my day was looking up. I suddenly didn’t care about the length of the drive because I was laughing my ass off. I rewound the book and truly enjoyed the first few lines again. “I can do this, Daisy does it. She does it all the time, I mean I don’t want to insinuate that my sister is the slutty one. But… she’s the slutty one.” The book is about Violet who loses her job and boyfriend and apartment within the same day. With her dwindling bank account, Violet has no choice but to take up her twin sister when she suggests she fill in for her at her work for the week, and that is how Violet finds herself being Daisy for a week long adventure. And if this isn’t enough of a fun twist, Jana Aston threw in a British guy, and what girl doesn’t love a hot British guy?
I finally made it to work with a full tank of gas, and a smile on my face. Over the next few gray days, the only thing keeping a smile on my face was looking forward to hearing more about Violet and her hunky British guy with a sexy name to match. Jennings was a complete gentleman who talked dirty at the right time and knew when to stop while he was ahead. Unlike “Jonathan” who decided to message me on Match. Now, let me begin by saying that it had been a long rainy week, and I was looking forward to my cozy night in.
The following conversation began innocently, throwing me for a loop with how quickly it turned.
Jonathan: Hi!
Me: Welcome back Jeff!
J: HAHA, did we match before?
M: Yes, but I got like 6 messages that you were “banned for suspicious activity.”
J: I actually just deleted my profile. I guess they consider that suspicious.
Me: Well, clearly you pissed them off, why else did they inform me so many times? Haha.
J; IDK, but I needed to get off, too many girls playing games.
Me: I can see that. I just got a good laugh and wondered what “suspicious behavior” entailed.
J: Or why they have to ban someone 6 times, and then allow them to come back. Looks like a glitch to me.
Me: I guess, but it was like they were building up their badassery.
J: Hahaha, thanks I appreciate that.
J: That’s a good way to look at it.
Me: x6, but I guess I’ve been warned right.
****NOW I KNOW I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED, BUT IT WAS LATE AND HIS GRAMMAR, AND PUNCTUATION WAS ON POINT. ***
J: Oh dear, sounds like you’re a naughty girl!
Me: Nope, just have a big imagination.
J: I love a girl with a big imagination. I find it goes well with my BIG imagination. It’s getting late, I’d love to use our imaginations late into the night. Here’s my number, lets make this happen. (555)555-5555.
So, I get that I used words like badassery, and imagination, but I just cannot get over the fact that this guy didn’t even know my name. He literally took 4 minutes before he decided that we needed to talk about his “big imagination”. How is this ok? I mean, I guess I had the warning signs, but I too have needed time away from dating apps and have deleted them, only to come back to them months later, so I don’t know what it shows guys when we have been matched. But at least I learned something, don’t use the word imagination or badassery, because if you do, the guy will assume you are a sure thing.
So do yourself a favor, take a break from the creeps online and read a great book. One that I assure you will have you laughing, and swooning, for a guy who has perfected the art of flirting without being a complete creepy ass douche.

The Right Kind of Creep…

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Sometimes bad books happen to good readers, and for me this had been the trend for some time. My kindle was quickly being filled with awful book after awful book. I was in a funk, and couldn’t seem to get out of it. Luckily for me, Christmas came early in the form of a fantastic book by newcomer Sally Thorne. I stumbled across The Hating Game simply because I was super behind on my Christmas shopping and found myself easily distracted by a book suggestion.

Honestly, neither the title nor the cover art pulled me in too much, but I found myself clicking to read the synopsis. I didn’t want to read too much in case I did purchase the book. Upon seeing the $7.99 price tag, I was almost deterred, because I read so many books and this book was exceptionally high. I was about to leave the page, when I remembered that I had some digital credits and would end up paying only $4.99. The universe was trying to tell me something, I knew it, so I one-clicked it. As I hit purchase I sent up a silent prayer to the book gods and hoped I wouldn’t regret my midnight purchase.

Over the following days as my Amazon packages began to appear, I remembered that I had purchased this book, and decided to start reading it during lunch. Not only was I late getting back to work, but I was also late to work the following morning because I had stayed up way past my bedtime reading. Sally Thorne had intended this to be a short story for a friend, but somehow found herself with a fantastic full-length novel. Before she began writing she asked said friend to give her one word that she would use as inspiration. Nemesis was that word. The title is a clever play on the word nemesis.

Lucy Hutton is a cute pushover who works with her arch nemesis Joshua Templeman in extremely close quarters. At first, some of the interactions between Lucy and Joshua seem a bit weird almost creepy. The truth is the reader isn’t intended to like much less love Joshua. I know I wasn’t fond of him. But as I continued to read I not only began to like him, I quickly fell in love with him as much as I loved Lucy. His “creepiness” wasn’t creepy, it was a relationship built over time, a relationship that was for much of the time one sided. Then turned into a beautiful kind of truce between two nemeses.

Now let’s talk about the other kind of creep, the bad kind of creep. A few weeks ago my friend Valerie received a Facebook message from a man she had never seen and didn’t know. The message was, “Hi, I know this may seem creepy, but I’m just very good at figuring things out. I always see you at the parking deck and I know most people that park here typically work at the Chase building so what I did was Instagram searched Chase and literally your picture popped up with some of your friends or coworkers, like the first pictures literally. So I clicked the picture and your Instagram name showed up and this is how I found your name (God I know this looks so bad smh), but I just really want to talk to you because you are a dope looking lady. Anyway, so I searched your name on Facebook and “again” your profile was the first one to show up; so I just want you to know that I’m not a stalker I’m just smart and I piece things together extremely well, and that is how I found you. So sorry if this weirds you out, in 2016, I know people are so paranoid about everything but I hope you understand that I simply took a chance on making myself look bad just to be able to possibly contact you, (aside from leaving a note on your car). You know the saying “no risk, no reward” I hope you reply to this and not “block” me for taking a shot in the dark.”  (Picture Below)

Now, when my friend Valerie sent this to me I reread it at least 3 times before I could even respond to her text message. “Dafaq?” was literally the only thing that came to mind. Because seriously, in what universe would a man think that a woman would look at this message and not think it was creepy. I mean, not only did he look her up on Instagram, he decided to dig deeper until he found her on Facebook and wrote to her. She didn’t reply to him, and I encouraged her not to. Something about the fact that he was not only watching her at work, but proceeded to creep on the internet for more information scared the crap out of me. She agreed with me that the whole situation made her feel very uncomfortable. I was wondering if I was being paranoid, so we decided to ask other people their thoughts.

After a few days the vote was not unanimous (insert my shock here), it was ultimately agreed that yes, this was in fact more creepy than flattering. However, one of the people who didn’t think it was creepy asked a question that stunned me. She asked, “Well is he good looking?” I stopped and thought about this for some time and wondered why the in the hell that mattered? Would it be ok if the guy looked more “boy next door”? Because the truth was I couldn’t look past the fact that this guy’s actions were slightly terrifying. His intentions were unclear, we honestly didn’t know what his reaction would be when she didn’t reply. We didn’t know if he would approach her and tell her that he was the one who had messaged her and question her as to why she hadn’t replied.

So back to The Hating Game, at the beginning, Joshua Templeman’s character did not give me all the warm fuzzy feelings that I am used to getting when reading a romance. But I think the hilarious dynamic between these two is why I loved Joshua Templeman and this book so much! Before I give away any spoilers, I will just say that this book was by far one of my favorite books of 2016 and dare I say it, one of my favorite books of all time. So do yourself a favor and look past the price tag, and one-click this bad boy. I promise you won’t regret it.

Stunned.

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Today while at lunch I decided to take my book and read it outdoors, enjoying our unusually hot fall weather (89 glorious degrees). While I was sitting outside at a restaurant, I had a man walk by me, as he was walking by me his shadow let me know he was there. So I looked up and he smiled at me, stopped walking and said, “You have a beautiful smile.” I smiled back and thanked him. He began to walk away as I went back to my book again. He then stopped turned around and came back to where I was sitting and attempted to have a conversation with me.

“What are you reading?” Pause.

“Is it any good?” Pause.

“What’s your name?” Pause.

Me- Man, he isn’t letting me answer.  I began to open my mouth to respond, when he started firing questions at me again.

“Are you here for lunch?”

“Do you come here often?”

Me- Good lord almighty I’m really ready to get back to my crappy book. But seriously, the book I’m reading isn’t even remotely good, but it’s more interesting than this guy. How can I get out of this conversation politely?

Me-  “Book name is blah, it’s not great, my name is Jasmine (not my real name),  I’m here on lunch, and no, I don’t come here often.”

I don’t know what the protocol for ending awkward unwanted chit-chat is, but I was done. He just nodded, and was about to ask me something else, when I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but I would really like to get back to my book.” He stood there staring at me, and I didn’t know what to do. I started panicking. My internal monologue commenced. How long do I have to keep eye contact before he gets the memo and walks away? Why doesn’t  he get that I’m uncomfortable? OMG, does he have food in his teeth, or is that a gap?” I felt myself squint, trying to get a better look at his teeth before I made eye contact once again. He began shaking his head, before he said, “Can I join you?” and pointed to the chair next to me. I blinked. Stunned. STUNNED. I mean, what the actual hell was happening?

Stunned is the perfect word to describe how I felt when I finished reading It Ends with Us, by Colleen Hoover. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE Colleen. Like so obsessed with her that a good friend of mine who is a Pastor wrote a sermon about my obsession. I was so excited about reading this book that I pre-ordered the e-book, knowing full well that I had also ordered the paperback version. But who wants to wait for the mailman to deliver the damn thing. Not this girl! I mean Colleen’s books are ones you prepare yourself for, the kind of books you call in sick to read on release day. And I was as prepared as I could be. I had made sure that I had finished my current read before this one released.

So when I saw that the e-book had been delivered to my kindle at 10:00 pm (2 whole hours early), I told myself I would read for one hour, allowing me to go to bed and get an acceptable amount of sleep. That didn’t happen. I read 50% of the book, before I told myself that I was going to have all day to read. I had called out of work ready to enjoy a day of lounging and reading.

I woke up early the following day, made myself a smoothie, not wanting to waste any of my precious reading time. I was quickly consumed with Lily’s past wanting to know what was going to happen. Then we read and follow as Lily meets and falls in love with Ryle, and as the reader, we too fall in love! The more I read, the more I swooned. And then I began to wonder why Colleen chose to put in Lily’s past, one where we meet Atlas, whom we also fall in love with. Atlas is a teen we meet from Lily’s flashbacks of her teenage years. A time where she meets Atlas, and finds herself with the overwhelming need to help and protect Atlas. A need that makes the reader mourn everything he’s lost, mourn the life every child should have, but in his case didn’t. Atlas’ shitty hand is so devastating it shatters our heart, and leaves us wondering what happened to Atlas. Why am I reading about him in the past tense? Why would she introduce us to him?

Then it happened. I reached part two of the book. And my stomach and cramped back remind me, that I’ve done absolutely nothing but read all day. But that doesn’t matter because PART TWO! If it is even possible I was even more consumed with part two than I was with one. I had so many questions and as my pages were becoming less and less, I was becoming anxious and dare I say angry. I didn’t want the book to end, not like this, not with the crazy twist she was putting in the book, and then she did she end the fucking book. I sat there looking at it, went back and re-read the final chapter one last time, because what the actual fuck? I sat there stunned. STUNNED. So I went back and re-read the final chapter a third time. And I smiled a little bit through my ugly tears. I was a little less stunned. So I read that final chapter one more time, and still the tears fell, but I still couldn’t believe it. This was it. There were no extra chapters, nothing. I honestly didn’t know how to feel.

I made myself breath trying to calm down, and knew I needed to stop thinking about it and distract myself. Really I just needed a temporary distraction because “What the fuck Colleen?” So I made myself pancakes at 3 in the afternoon, watched some Ellen DeGeneres (insert irony here) and didn’t hear a word spoken because I kept replaying that final chapter over and over in my head. So, I did what any sane person would do, I took 2 advil and re-read the final chapter. Again. Something about this time was different. I don’t know what it was about this final time that made me cry harder, even though it should have been impossible to do so, and when I finished it, I felt lighter and grateful for this book, because although I was stunned (yes, still stunned) it is such a powerful book, and I believe it’s a book that all women should read.

Is this the kind of book I would recommend to people, hell yes! Is this the kind of book I would re-read? I don’t know. I was so moved by it, that I honestly believe that if I re-read it, everything I gained by reading it the first time might be lost.  

Two weeks later I saw Colleen at a book signing in Los Angeles, and was able to thank her for writing a book that made me stop and think and quite honestly left me speechless and stunned. Poor thing was sick from her crazy travel schedule and after 3 hours of signing, I knew what I told her was something she had surely heard from one of her other fans. What she doesn’t know is that this book that stunned me, made me cry for all the Lily’s in the world, that haven’t read this book, and might never read it. I know this blog post is very vague and I did that on purpose, because honestly this is a book that you want to go in knowing as little as possible. But in all fairness, I did warn you about being left stunned.

Which brings me back to today, William (yes, I learned his name) didn’t get the clue that I wanted to be left alone and sat down at my table. Here is what I learned about William before I was able to save myself. He is just out of a long-term online relationship. They met on a discussion board about PokemonGo (no, I’m not making this up). He is an accountant, but hates numbers (insert confusion here). He recently upgraded to a red Toyota Prius, and would like to be married in the next year and a half. Now, at some point during this very awkward one-sided conversation, he realized he hadn’t asked me anything about myself, laughed and proceeded to ask me how I felt about cats. And that my friends was my cue to make a hasty exit. I looked at my watch and told him I had a meeting I needed to get to. I grabbed my belongings, got up and turned to say goodbye, and I noticed he had his phone out handing it to me to put my number in. Now, I thought I was stunned before, nope. This was so far past stunned I don’t even think there is a word for it. I handed him his phone back, and as kindly as I could, tried to let him down. “William, this has been interesting, and I thank you for your interest, but um. Yeah, I’m not interested. Thank you so much, and have a great day.” I walked away but not before I heard him mutter, “Maybe it’s my cologne.”

General Assholery & Illusive Authors

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The other night I realized that I wasn’t just a pain in the ass as a kid, I was a straight up asshole. Like I don’t wish that kid on anyone level of assholery. As I was looking at all the pictures of myself, I realized that I did everything in my power to be as difficult as possible. I mean for the first 5 years of my life, I simply refused to try new food and had some made up aversion to all green foods. Now, please don’t judge my mother for “allowing” this to happen. She did all she could to make sure I was healthy, but food was just a constant battle for her. I was big on textures, so if she forced me to eat foods that were green or textured she knew I would probably vomit. Simple as that, so she avoided it. I mean, who wants to clean up kid vomit all day, every day?

One particular day, my mother had enough of my stubbornness and took it upon herself to teach me a lesson. She knew that I had made up my mind that I wanted nothing to do with these healthy foods. So sat down in front of me with a small red bowl, and said “If you eat these, we can go get that Skipper doll you’ve been wanting.” Then she proceeded to walk away like the badass she was.

Now, if you don’t know what a Skipper doll is, then you clearly were not a 90’s baby. Skipper was Barbie’s little sister and was the only toy I had wanted all year, but I had done nothing worthy enough in my mother’s eyes to earn it. I was, however, taunted every time I turned on the TV because for months on end she was the “it” toy. I wanted her with every fiber of my being.
The small red bowl of cucumbers which sat in front of me, taunted me while I stared at it for a good few minutes. Finally, I took a deep breath, counted the pieces, and quietly chanted to myself, “You can do this!” The only thing separating me from my very own Skipper doll was 24 small cucumber pieces. I stood up and stuck as many pieces as I could into my mouth. I began to chew while holding my nose, and when I realized I couldn’t breathe properly I let go of my nose. Up until that day I had feared vegetables. I simply woke up and decided that all vegetables were gross. Try talking a 5 year old out of anything, it’s impossible and not usually pretty.

My reality changed that day after eating those 24 pieces of cucumber. After finishing the last piece, I was surprisingly shocked that I made it to the bottom of that red bowl. After a few minutes, my mother came back in and being the asshole I was, acted as though I had hated every bite. If I gave my mother any inkling that I enjoyed the cucumbers, I knew she would take advantage of the situation and force feed me vegetables for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. For some time after this, my mom found non-traditional ways of introducing new vegetables into my daily meals, for example, new shoes for Skipper or a new back to school outfit for Skipper that matched my outfit. She knew Skipper was my Achilles heel and that I would do anything for more Skipper accessories.

This brings us to current day. As an avid reader, my expectations for books has changed over time. Now that I’m in a book club and have a blog, I try to avoid authors and books that have low ratings and I especially avoid books by authors I have previously read in the past and disliked. I will admit that this has, at times, made me an asshole who has passed up great books or authors due to high expectations and fear of wasting my time. So I don’t really follow hype of new authors and new books until I have done enough research to commit to an author or book.

A few months ago, I was reading a trending post in one of the Facebook groups I follow and they were talking about a new author named Max Monroe. After reading post after post about this author, I decided to take my curiosity one step further. I logged onto my Goodreads account and decided that I would figure out who this illusive Max Monore was. After about 20 minutes on Goodreads and Google, I gathered enough information and tried to decipher the information I had found. Apparently Max and Monroe are two separate people. It’s the pseudonym of two New York Times Best Selling authors. Now after reading this I thought, “Oh man, this is such a gamble.” I’ve read multiple series in which two great authors collaborate and I found it extremely difficult to finish, and most of the time, wished I had never wasted my time or money. Max Monroe didn’t pique my interest enough to add to my To Be Read (TBR) list.
The next few weeks went by and people kept talking about this duo and how no one could figure out who they were. My newsfeed was filled with people speculating about who they believed the two authors were. At one point, it was believed that one of the authors was Colleen Hoover, my all-time favorite author. She made a few jokes on her Facebook page and then admitted that she was not in fact one of the authors. Yet, the hype grew and grew as did their pre-orders for book one. I still wasn’t persuaded to pre-order let alone add this book to my TBR list.
The release day came and went, and I decided I would wait to see how it did on Amazon and Goodreads before I even considered reading or suggesting it to my book club. Exactly one month after it was released, curiosity got the best of me, and I downloaded a sample of Max Monroe’s first book Tapping the Billionaire. Don’t stop reading, it’s not as bad as it sounds, I promise. Tapping is actually a play on an app that is featured in the book. Now, that we’ve cleared that up, let me tell you about this book. It is by far the funniest thing I have ever read. This book quickly dethroned Nuts by Alice Clayton (sorry Alice), and did so in the most ridiculously awesome way.
 
The premise of this book is one that most readers are familiar with, a girl works for a big company and one day her boss decides that he is going to ask her out. And well the rest is fairly predictable, but it didn’t even matter because I found myself laughing aloud while reading. I made the mistake of reading at work where my co-workers gave me funny looks, but I didn’t care, because I was loving every minute of it. Unlike most other books with the same premise, this one had one thing that the other books didn’t, the billionaire boss was down to earth and humble which made you fall in love with him instantly. Yes, judge away, I just admitted to falling in love with a fictional character. Anyways, funny scenarios happen, and the more it does, the more you love the friendship/relationship that builds between Georgia (Georgie) and Klein.

I am not ashamed to admit that I was wrong to assume this book would suck because of all the hype. My expectations were not realistic, and just like that day years ago, my views shifted. My reality was that I assume the book would suck but it didn’t. I devoured this book. I think I read this book and its novella in a day. Safe to say that when book 2 came out, I had zero reservations about diving in head first. In book 2 (Banking the Billionaire), we are re-introduced to Thatcher (Klein’s friend) and Cassie (Georgia’s friend) who begin a relationship basically on a bet. The whole thing is yet again ridiculous, and at time over the top but I seriously could not put it down. Again I laughed, and wanted to know more. When the book ended it left the readers wanting to know what craziness was going to happen next which brings me to why I am writing my blog today. Max Monroe sent me an excerpt of their next book Banking Her due to be released September 6, 2016. So if you want to know what’s going to happen with Georgie & Klein and Thatch & Cassie, stay tuned…… if you haven’t meet these characters yet, well, get to it.

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http://www.authormaxmonroe.com/#!books/cnec
http://goo.gl/gd2aB9

Nuts… The Gift that Keeps on Giving!

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Have you ever been pleasantly surprised for all the wrong reasons? Well since the New Year began, I have had this happen to me in both my “dating life” and my reading life. I was introduced to Alice Clayton, a few years ago and I thought her writing was ok. Honestly, it wasn’t something I would promote or suggest. Although she has published book after book since the one read, I never went back to read any of them. Then one day while searching for a new book, I saw a book cover for her upcoming book, and I smiled at both the title and the cover art. Yet I wasn’t intrigued enough to click and read the synopsis. Quickly after the release date, the 5 star ratings came in, and I still wasn’t convinced to read it. It wasn’t until my book club decided that we would give it a shot. I did and went in with low expectations. The same was true of the events that happened on Tuesday night.

A few weeks ago, my friend Valerie decided that we should go speed dating. Now this wasn’t just any old speed dating, this was a professionals, ages 30-40. At first I thought eh. But the more I thought about it, the more, I said well what do I have to lose? The truth was I would only lose a Tuesday night (at worst). So I jumped on board, and before I knew it, it was Speed Dating night. I did what any girl would do, chose a cute outfit, did my hair and makeup and headed downtown to start this adventure. Truth be told I was hoping that at the very least I would have some laughs and some stories to tell. And boy was I right!

The night started off a little on the weird side when Valerie, her co-worker and I were sitting at a small table by the bar. A woman took it upon herself to take a seat with us and tell us about her lack of dates. The three of us listened as she regaled us with her latest Tinder catastrophe. After a few more stories, we began to see men coming into the nice hotel and we knew they too were for the same event. We finished our drinks and checked in, we were seated around a dinning room that was “blocked off” to the general public.

The girls were the only ones allowed in this area for sometime, and honestly as we looked around we couldn’t help but laugh at how we got ourselves into these situations. Before we knew it we were then introduced to the host for the evening and he gave us a basic explanation on how the evening would go. Of course, the first five-minute round meant that I would be an observer versus an actual participant, because a few men hadn’t shown. Which truth be told, was more than fine by me. I sat back sipped my lemon water, and enjoyed the best people watching of my life.

A long gong (I kid you not) was our signal that it was time for the men to move on to the next table. The first gentleman that joined me was a guy who seemed nice right off the top, then began to tell me what he hated about my lovely city. I honestly sat there laughing, because I mean it’s San- FUCKING Diego, what can you complain about other then we have too much sunshine. To say that I was excited when our five minutes was up would be an understatement. I was ecstatic. Next came an awesome 45 year-old engineer, who couldn’t make eye contact. Like at all. At first, I thought well, that’s funny, but really get it together dude. He finally made eye contact, when he dropped his pen, and had to pick it up.

The night continued very much the same way until a Will Farrell look-a-like sat down, and when I say sat down, I mean threw himself into his chair. “Hi…” Looking at his name badge I finished “Jim.” He looked at my name badge and closed his eyes as if in pain, and said “Shit, man. Your name is Love and I’m over here with the lamest name ever.” I laughed, because I love me a sense of humor, but I quickly learned that his sense of humor was fueled by liquor. Lots and lots of liquor. Over the next seven minutes (he refused to move until he was literally escorted to the next chair) he told me about how he always wished he was a bad ass, but with a face and personality like his, there was really no way “Jim would ever be considered cool.” His whole rant was seriously the best of the night. With phrases like “My ex childhood best friend stopped talking to me, because I called him an asshole to his face, while naked in his childhood bed. Oh, and did I tell you that I drive a car named Matilda.” Now, Jim and I were not a match but he did make my night, because let’s face it hearing a man talk about how much of a wimp he is for never being able to get a massive tattoo of a polar bear and guns on his chest is a win for me.

Following Jim, who asked me all of zero questions about myself was a young man named Lee who began our interaction with “Holy shit, he keeps taking time from me and my potential lady.” I couldn’t help but laugh, because yes, he had in fact taken two of his minutes with me. I learned that Lee was some sort of engineer, we couldn’t help but continue to stray back to all topics Jim, and again it was safe to say that I had not found my match. The night continued very much in the same form, I found that most men were either engineers, or in some sort of IT job.

Another memorable gentleman, who introduced himself by announcing his whole name before he had even taken a seat. “Hi, I’m Tony Montana.” He spoke/shouted while opening his leather jacket showing me his nametag. “Hi, I’m Love.” I replied signaling for him to sit down. “That’s it, that’s your name?” He said as he sat down. “Yup. I only have one name like Cher.” I joked. He didn’t laugh. Once he had written my name on his sheet, he looked at me, and loudly began my 5-minute interview. “Do you want kids?” I sat there, knowing that at least a few people had heard the question, and were now awaiting my response. Completely stunned, that he had decided to ask such a question right off the bat had me speechless. I shook myself out of my shock and answered honestly “You know, right now my answer is no, but you never know, maybe down the road I will change my mind.” I couldn’t tell if this was the response he was looking for but he did continue his interview like questions, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are your goals?” I can honestly say that when the gong was rung, I was more then relieved to say my goodbyes.

By the end of the night I had meet one tennis instructor, and a 46 year-old man who I’m fairly positive was gay. So here is the moral of my speed dating night. Go in ready for some laughs, and there is no way you will be disappointed. Did I find my match? My other half? No, but what I did find, was that even in the most awkward of situations, I can have a good time and make the most of the shenanigans in which I get myself into. This was not the first time I had gotten myself into a situation like this, and I’m sure it wont be my last.

The book Nuts, was honestly more than I could have every wanted in a book. Although the book was fairly predictable, it was absolutely charming. It honestly has to be one of the funniest books I have ever read. From beginning to end, I was smiling and laughing out loud. The premise to this book was so creative and different yet so comically amazing that I finished reading it, only to wipe the laughter tears away and turn to page one to do it all over again. So if you are looking for a funny cute romantic comedy, where the lead character is a bit of a mess yet makes you root for her from the very beginning, then this is the book for you. Plus Leo, the hot farmer has to be one of my favorite male characters of all time (and I’ve read a lot of books!). In the words of Harry Dunne (Dumb & Dumber) “You do something like this and totally redeem yourself!” I’m woman enough to admit, that perhaps I was wrong about Alice Clayton. So do yourself a favor, save the money spent on speed dating and buy yourself this book, and maybe a nice bottle of wine and get ready to read a delightful book.

 

 

At least I had a good book….

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A few weeks ago, while on the Tind, I swiped right on a good-looking guy. I actually swiped right because he reminded me of my childhood crush Dean Cain of Superman fame. Deciding I had seen enough shirtless rock climbers for a day, I logged off and went back to reading Kilti by Mariana Zapata. Within 2 minutes my phone not only pinged once, but twice indicating I had received a match and a message. I pretended to ignore it, then thought, “Eh, who am I kidding?” and logged back on.

I was completely shocked to see that Superman had written me, “Hi (insert my name here)!!! Being a girl, I got giddy, and excited that one, he had written me immediately, and two, he used not 1, but 3 exclamation points. So I said hello immediately, and our conversation began.

Over the next few days, our conversations were superficial, the what, how, and when’s of everyday life. He cracked a few jokes, I laughed and shared a few jokes of my own eliciting a few lol’s and even a few emojis. We signed off a few minutes later as it was dinner time and both had places to be.

The next morning I had a new message from him, explaining that he had eaten the best double bacon cheddar cheese burger, “EVER!” He proceeded to describe how delicious it was, and how he wished it wasn’t so unhealthy so he could eat them all the time. I figured since he was sharing so much about his love of the BCCB, I’d tell him that I had never had a BCCB in my life… Here is how our conversation went down:

Me: Brace yourself, I have a confession.
CK: ok…
Me: I’ve never had bacon.
CK: WHY??
Me: I’m kosher.
CK: Why?
Me: long story short, my dad is Jewish, my mom is protestant, they are both kosher…. Raised vegetarian, but I discovered beef when I was a teen and rebelled, told them I wasn’t a vegetarian anymore. But to not completely break their hearts, I eat kosher.
CK: ok.
45 minutes later
CK: Seems logical.

He signed off again, having a meeting to get to. I joked with my friends that Superman who had been so verbose, and talkative was now speaking monosyllabically because I didn’t eat bacon. They laughed and called me “stupid”. I laughed some more and then went back to my awesome book, at least I had my book. I thought about bacon and laughed one more time.

So, I waited a day, and I was encouraged to start up a conversation with him again. Jump back on the horse they said, it’ll be fine they said. So, I wrote him and asked him about his aforementioned travels. His replies were short, and to the point. I was like “Alrighty then” and decided to leave it up to him to write me, should he be so inclined. He wasn’t inclined. I however, was inclined to take pictures of our conversation as proof that something I had said had scared him off. I went to my conversations and it was GONE. Everything was gone, he had not only decided to stop writing me, but to un-match me, he was gone, and so was our complete conversation. It’s all fun and games, until a guy unmatches and blocks you. Jokingly I told my co-workers and best friends about my bacon theory and again they said “no way”. Only now I couldn’t show them the actual conversation.

It was in that moment that I knew the truth. Bacon did this. Bacon was a cock-block. That’s right, I was blaming it on the bacon. Facking Bacon, I hate you!

Anyways, I laughed about it, made jokes about it and went back to my awesome book. Kulti had me laughing out loud until it mentioned breakfast, which made me think of bacon. Stupid bacon.

Three days passed and I mentioned this conversation to my friends Valerie and Annalise, one was as confused as me, while the other believed it had more to do with the fact that my family was so religious something he didn’t seem to be. Although that is most likely closer to the truth, I choose to blame it on bacon. Or maybe Superman wasn’t as nice as he appeared, perhaps he was obsessed with bacon, and a non-bacon eater just wouldn’t fit into his life. Whatever the truth is, my conversation left me feeling mad, something that books rarely do to me.

So I chose to eat a cupcake and get happy again by reading my current favorite book. My friend and book club buddy found this book and told me I should read it. It has been quite some time since I’ve read a book that I loved so fully. Kulti is a book about a profession soccer player who has put her romantic life on the back burner to focus on her career. It wasn’t this that hit so close to home, but the relationships in the book truly made me fall in love with her as much as it did with the lead male character. Something that is hard to do. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but I do want to suggest that if you are looking for a great romance book, read this book, and read it now!

Oh, and to add insult to injury, my iPhone keyboard now has a bacon emoji.

Dating or whatever…

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So it’s been quite some time since I’ve posted… my sincerest apologies

If you logged onto my Tinder app, here is what you’d find out about me, I have over 100 matches, (yay me). Of these 100 I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with about 10% of them. You see being a lady that I am, expect the man to chat me up first. For the most part they don’t, apparently someone shot chivalry. For it, is very much dead!

Of these 10% about 4% only chat me up long enough to know that I am not the kind of lady who is down to “Get to know each other biblically, because I should be so lucky.” ß true story, some dude actually said that to me. It’s safe to say, we are now madly in love and have 2.5 kids, HAHA JK! Ok, so back to my rant…

The remaining 6% didn’t get the memo that girls like to get to know a guy before agreeing to meet up. That, and or, they are trying to Catfish me, because most of the guys have basically lost interest when I did things like ask questions, because God forbid I want to get to know a guy before I agree to basically potentially be murdered at a local Starbucks.

But don’t fret; I’m having a great time, because I’m a lover of learning. I’ve learned so much about what it means to be a lady trying to catch her a man these days. As per my usual, here is my list of fun things I’ve learned from the University of Tinder.

  1. Apparently having that many abs makes you allergic to shirts.I should probably stop eating these Cheetos Puffs, cause there is no way I will be able to catch me one of these 12 pack shirtless in every picture guys.
  2. My two biggest fears are keeping me from catching me a man.Should my 4% agree to got out on a date, he will most likely want to do 2 things, rock climb then surf. Only, I am terrified of heights, and although shark week is by far my favorite week all year, I am terrified of becoming shark bait.
  3. There are Superheroes on Tinder. Like real ones.I’m now a pro at spotting them. The Super Douches are among us, hiding in bathrooms, taking selfies, while showing off their chiseled bodies and too much hair product. But don’t worry ladies, they’re easily spotted in gyms, taking pictures of themselves instead of working out.
  4. You must be 9’ tall to ride. Average height guys are about 6’7”. I’m going to need a good chiropractor, one who will be able to adjust my neck, because I’m 5’1” (on a good day), basically I need to accept that we are going to looking awkward, unless I learn how to walk in 8” heels… Does amazon sell these? (haha… just looked up 8” heels and they are specifically referred to as Stripper heels).
  5. Must play nice (too nice).During one of my “chats”, I had a guy ask me, if I enjoyed anal sex in public places, all this before 9am and first name introductions. Mama said play nice, but I don’t think that’s what she had in mind.

So, as I continue in search of my Tinderince, I shall continue to share fun photos of lady boys, and gingers wearing speedos, because why not?

Enjoy!

Tind 1 Tind 2 Tind 3 Tind 4 Tind 5 Tind 6

Tinderella seeking non-douche Tinderince

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I feel the need to start by introducing my current relationship situation, and myself or lack there of for that matter. I recently just turned 30, and am single. My bff, “Valerie” is also single and she took the initiative to get herself and me in tow, onto the site we call Tinder. Since this adventure is too good not to share, I thought you all deserve a moment of humor, at my expense. You’re welcome!

  1. People who aren’t single, and haven’t been single in years, should get no say as to why I am still single. You just don’t get it unless you are single. Period. End of story, move on, next topic, how about them Padres?
  2. Now, lets get a few things clear. One, I know that Tinder is mainly used to “hook-up” and no, I am not, nor have I ever been that kind of girl. There has to be at least one decent guy on this site right?
  3. There are a lot of “single” men out there. But dating a douche bag isn’t particularly high on my list.
  4. Here are some pointers, because lets face it, you don’t want to appear to be a douche (even if you are one), hide that shit until you at least get to date #2.
    1. No bathroom mirror selfies- you look like a 13 year old girl
    2. No bathroom mirror selfies, with your shirt off. “Oh, you have a 6-pack.” I don’t give a rat’s ass, put a damn shirt on!
    3. If every picture you have on your profile is you with some girl (who isn’t family), I’m left Swiping. I don’t care how hot/ funny you seem.
    4. No man, (except David Beckham) looks good in a Speedo, unless you are in Spain, then it’s free for all. Just don’t post those pictures on your profile.

So far here is what the universe has to offer me…. They say pictures are worth a thousand words so here are a few thousand words.

photo 1 photo 2 photo 3 photo 4

Stay tuned, as this Tinder adventure has only just begun.

The Honeymoon Period, or Not

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The term Honeymoon period is used to describe much more than the actual honeymoon period. I used it to describe the feeling I had when I read the Novella written by my favorite author, only this time I used the word OVER after the term. So as my pre-order for Maybe Someday by Colleen Hoover was downloading, that I thought and secretly prayed that she would not let me down. The expectations for this book were so high, and I knew I might have set myself up for a complete letdown. And so, with a weary heart I began to read.

I recently turned… 30, and I am proud to say that I didn’t freak out once. I wish I could say I was a complete adult about the whole situation, but I couldn’t. I took 2 days off and went to my happiest place on earth. Disneyland. What did you think I was going to say? Anywho… it was there that someone asked how I was handling turning 30 and not being married, or close to being married for that matter. I was shocked that this person was so blunt and also for being such an asshole, on my birthday nonetheless! Douche.

Anyways, after my return to the real world, my best friend of too many years (who is also single) took me out to coffee. Hmmmm, coffee. It was while she was paying for my coffee that I knew she was up to something, and based on the look she had on her face, I knew I wasn’t going to be happy. She asked me for my phone, which was a usual occurrence since I have a much newer phone. It was after we found a few chairs that she said “I’m getting you this app what’s your password?” Sadly, it still didn’t click, and I gave it to her. I drank my coffee, enjoying my latest romance novel, when she put my phone down face first. I put my kindle down, and went to grab it but she stopped me. “You have to give this a try, promise me.” I didn’t promise her, but I did take my phone, and that was when I saw it. TINDER, the new flipping app, on my phone. We had a very adult conversation about how I need to give it a try before I said no. I reluctantly agreed, knowing there was no point in denying her, one way or another.

So I’ve been on it for 3 weeks, and in that time, I have been on the app a total of 4 times (one was the night it was installed). It was there that I “met” a young man; lets call him “John”. It all began with basic lets get to know each other banter. The what do you do, what are your hobbies, then the conversation grew boring. So I decided that I would give it one more try. Here is how the conversation basically went down. Me- Whats your favorite Tv show? Mine is Arrested Development.
John- Sons of Anarchy, and Arrested was not my cup of tea.
John- Wait. Seinfield.
Me- Sorry, never liked it. Favorite foods? Mine are Indian and Italian. Yours?
John- Ew Indian. I love sushi.
Me- I hate sushi. I should probably mention I’m Kosher.
John- Jeswish?
Me- Kinda, mom is SDA, dad is Jewish.
John- Are you religious?
Me- I try to be. You?
John- Not at all.
Me- Well Shit.

So you would think I’d be done. But I had made a promise and I though well, they say opposites attract, and then he asked me about that I found attractive in a man. I told him. And then he did it, he dropped the bomb. “I like shorter girls, cause I’m short.” I was thinking well my brother is like 5’7 and he thinks he’s short, so maybe this is what he’s thinking is short. I waited for another text that came minutes later. 5’4. Insert course words here. You see, I’m short, but as a girl, it’s considered “normal”. And I know myself, I have never been attracted to short guys, ever, call me shallow, call me a B, but I think that once the “honeymoon” period is over you can take off your fun colored glasses and see that I could focus on just this one thing, or notice that at the end of the day, we were just so not compatible. Most of our conversations were the same he and I not agreeing or having similar likes and wants.

When an author releases a release date for a new book, avid readers prep themselves, pre-order plan when to read etc. And it was at said author’s book signing that I became super excited about the prospect of this new book. But then we were told that we would have to wait close to 9 months for it. Then I became apprehensive because her last book had let me down. It wasn’t a Sacred 5 like all the others she had written, but it was still a high 4, which means it’s super high on any list readers list. Maybe the Honeymoon period would end here, and she would no longer be my favorite author. Maybe she would become the author of my favorite books, and that’s all. This sad thought loomed over me like a sad cloud until the book downloaded onto my Kindle.

At first I read and found some of the things that made me think I was going to dislike it, things that had deterred me from reading/ finishing other books. Love triangles, annoying roommates, etc. But the more I gave into the story, the more I found I could relate to the protagonist. I loved her character, but hated the circumstances that life had placed in front of her, much like my own life. That was when I came to the conclusion, that unlike my Tinder guy, I was still in love with her writing, and the Honeymoon Period, was still very much alive.