Workout Wednesday: BOO! Are You Afraid of the Dark?

I don't like spiders and snakes results!

Pages read 416 pages

Riding Time 3 hours 45 minutes

Calories Burned 1455

Distance Peddled 66.66

Making the Grade: A-

For My Thoughts


Deadly Fear continues my new-to-me authors trend I seem to be following in 2010. This is my 1st ever Cynthia Eden book, but it certainly won’t be my last!

Deadly Fear pulls you right in from the opening prologue offering a glimpse of the chilling story of suspense to come.

Imagine your worst fears. Now imagine a deranged madman mercilessly torturing you and using your own fears against you. Scared yet? I know I was. Being scared of spiders, bees and lightning myself, just imagining being tortured to death by any one of these things had me shuddering.

Monica Davenport's a Special Agent for the FBI in the SSD (Serial Services Division). Her ability to get inside the head of the killers she investigates makes her an invaluable member of this special team. But she’s also the survivor of a horrific nightmare she experienced as a teenager and now that past may be coming back to taunt her.

Luke Dante is your typical alpha male and the newest member of the SSD team. Although new to the team, he‘s definitely a familiar face to Special Agent Davenport. In fact they are intimately acquainted after an unforgettable one night stand during their days together at the FBI training academy.  Monica is coolly detached at first when dealing with Luke, but given her past, it’s totally understandable. She’s reluctant to let anyone, let alone Luke into her heart, but their feelings for one another can’t be denied and when they do hook-up…whoa - the sex is hawt.

The FBI investigation and suspense plot of Deadly Fear doesn’t leave a lot of time to devote to romance for this duo. Together Monica and Luke must hunt down and find a sadistic killer dubbed The Watchman, who is torturing and killing people using their own fears against them. But this killer has a personal interest and his own agenda for Agent Davenport as he draws her into his deadly cat and mouse game.

Monica is by far the star of this show. She is one smart, savvy, take charge, kick-ass chick. She doesn’t need anyone to look after her and Luke is the perfect partner. He‘s patient, strong, understanding and totally supportive when Monica needs it most, plus she knows he’s always got her back.

The suspense in Deadly Fear was riveting and heart-pounding. Some of the scenes had me holding my breath and turning the pages as fast as I could read them. If I was a nail-biter, they would have been bitten to the quick. Eden writes an evil villain guaranteed to scare the bejeesus out of you.

Next up in this series is Deadly Heat and the excerpt provided promises to deliver another “barn burner” and I can’t wait for it’s release early in 2011.

For Fans of: Lisa Gardner, Karen Rose
Reminded me a lot of: Criminal Minds, Dexter

Read an Excerpt:

Release Date: 07/27/2010
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Romantic Suspense

Book Description

TWO BRILLIANT AGENTS

FBI Special Agent Monica Davenport has made a career out of profiling serial killers. But getting inside the twisted minds of the cruel and the sadistic has taken its toll: She’s walled herself off from the world. Yet Monica can’t ignore fellow agent Luke Dante, the only man who ever broke through her defenses.

ONE DREAM TEAM
Luke has the unique ability to put victims at ease…professionally, he and Monica made a perfect team. Now they’re reunited to catch a murderer who uses his victims’ deepest, darkest fears for sport - but their investigative skills aren’t enough. Luke and Monica will have to face the secrets from their past, the ones that terrify them the most, if they are to have a future together.

But can they catch a killer whose weapon is…DEADLY FEAR?

This Is One Big MAX You Won't Find on the Menu at Micky D's

Another Paranormal series? Another new to me author Nancy Gideon? What is up with me lately?
I'm going to have to retire my Para-newbie status and fully embrace the Para-fan label cuz I think I am well and truly hooked.

If you enjoy Paranormal romance, then this is the series for you. The only thing I have to compare it to are Nalini Singh's Psy/Changling series and Lora Leigh's Breed series. The biggest complement I can give the series is it reminded me a lot of Nora Roberts In Death series featuring Eve and Roake.


 

Masked by Moonlight
(I'm showing you all three covers just because I can)

Making the Grade: A-

For My Thoughts



Storyboard:

Cut to me at the grocery story,  I spy with my little eye book 2 in the series (unbeknownst to me at the time), Chased by Moonlight.  Hellz ya it's got a hot cover. Rippling, sweaty back muscles, ripped white shirt and some claw marks.....Okaaaay you now have my attention.

Flip to Chapter 1, Page 1 for a little preview...

And Action:

(Ringing phone, yadda yadda yadda)

Oh, that's it, baby.  Right there. That's the spot.

(blah blah blah)

As her hand unfisted from sleek dark hair, a low voice came from under the covers.
"Don't answer it."
The request was punctuated by her body's greedy shuddering, but her hand was already on the phone.

Cut!

Whatever you are selling Ms. Gideon, I am buying.  Sold!  Or it would have been except after I read the back cover, I quickly realized that this was book 2 in the series and I just knew this was one series I was going to want to read in order and enjoy from the beginning...and it was the right decision. 

One of the reasons I found this book (and the series) so appealing was that this story took place in current day New Orleans. There were no underworlds or mythical beings with names I couldn’t pronounce or strange powers and no slimy disgusting creatures that made my skin crawl.

Cops and crime lords, hired muscle, grizzly murders and the hottest werewolf since True Blood's Alcide (yes he was who I imagined for Max while reading), Masked by Moonlight has it all.

Max Savoie and Charlotte “CeCe” Caissie have a wary, contemptuous, flirtatious association. She’s a ball-bustin’ homicide detective keeping the mean streets of New Orleans safe and Max is....well he's a lot of things including the hired muscle for a major crime boss Jimmy Legere and he's definitely CeCe's grade A prime piece of succulent beef suspect when bodies start piling up in the Big Easy murdered in a grizzly, inhuman way.

I could talk about Max for the rest of this review *swoon*. Man is he yummy.

Max is definitely caught between a rock and a hard place in Masked by Moonlight. Max owes his entire existence to his crime lord boss and he's 100% loyal and devoted to the man who has been like a father to him since he was a young boy. But Max has definitely had Charlotte on his radar for a number of years. In fact, she owns Max's heart, but has no idea.

Max is one complicated alpha-dog - literally. Turns out he’s a werewolf. When transformed he is ferocious and unstoppable, but Gideon also writes him with great child-like innocence and vulnerability depending on who he is interacting with in the storyline. You can not help but fall in love with this complex man as his heart wrenching background is revealed. It literally tugs at your heartstrings.

Cece is undeniably drawn to Max even though she knows she can’t be; doesn’t want to be; doesn’t trust the man as far as she could toss him….and yet she is. She has MAJOR trust issues, but not without basis. Yet at times I did find myself frustrated with her and wanted to yell at her to give the man a break. I understood her trepidation with trusting the man, and I had some inside scoop about Max that she didn’t have, so I cut her some slack.

I love the fact that Book 2 Chased by Moonlight (read excerpt) Pocket Books / June 29, 2010  and Book 3 Captured by Moonlight (read excerpt) Pocket Books / July 27, 2010  continue the story of Charlotte and Max because this is one Big MAX attack that you can never get your fill of.

Back Cover Blurb: Masked by Moonlight
Pocket Books / May 25, 2010

Read an excerpt

They were lovers who feared nothing…except each other.

Troubled by secrets, torn by loyalties, a deadly shape-shifter and a dedicated cop fight impossible odds in steamy New Orleans where a criminal empire built on treacherous alliances and a clan of ferocious Shifters searching for their prophesied leader conspire to pull them apart. Debuting in May, June, and July 2010, three more books have just been SOLD to Pocket in this addictive new series.

TWITLOSS! The Finale: Results Show

Hail! Hail! The gang's all here. Bob, Jillian and Allison from The Biggest Loser stopped by to help me reveal my mid-season stats.

Worth The Weight - The Pay Off!

Workout Wednesday: Read-n-Ride Results
Peddling my A$$ off one book at a time




# of books read 22                       Pages Read 6,650
Time Elapsed 72 freaking hours       Cals Burned 27,851 or 7.95lbs
Distance Travelled 1,325.61 miles  That's like riding from:

For US readers: New York City to Dallas, Texas
For Canada readers: Toronto On to St John's Newfoundland

I've got a few people who I follow on Twitter who deserve a special SHOUT OUT that participate in #Twitloss...@Twimom227, @Pearl_828, @dyromance, @kindlevixen, @mamakitty729, @CaitlynWillows, @TrishB, @Lynette2cents. Your tweets provide support, motivation and inspiration on a daily basis.

And I have a special SHOUT OUT to @shilohwalker for all her tweet-filled moans and groans about running and #twitloss. It was her tweets about her own experiences that gave me the courage to start running at the gym. I'm not sure what it was about her tweets that touched me, but they did and for that I am grateful.


Progress: Am I ever going to make it through this workout?

Elliptical
Day 1 Mar 11, 2010:          32 mins Level 1 373 cals
Present Day:                    65 mins Level 6 1003 cals

Treadmill: The slow man's shuffle
Day 1 April 18, 2010:    21 mins 1.04 miles
Present Day:               64 mins RAN 5 miles *throws confetti*
This is by far my greatest accomplishment to date!


Weighing In: The Pay-off

Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter

Thanks for sharing my #Twitloss trials and tribulations over the past 2 weeks. I've come a long way from six months ago, but there's still a lot of miles to travel in my #Twitloss journey (mmmm...why couldn't my journey have been to the French Riviera?).

For anyone who thinks they can't do it-I'm here to tell you that you can!

6 Month Blogaversary Giveaway: And The Winners Are....

I made Mama pick the 2 lucky numbers today.

And the winners are:

Comment #2  ms bookjunkie said...
Congrats on your six month blogaversary! I enjoy stopping by for your Workout Wednesday posts, though they have yet to guilt me into dragging my butt to the gym more…

Comment #11 nikkibrandyberry said...
Oh yeah, I want to win :) Thanks for a giveaway!

Congratulations to the winners and I'll be in touch to see what you would like ordered from the Book Depository!

TWITLOSS! My Top 5 Reasons to Lose Weight: Reason 1 The A-Ha Moment

I brought in the Big Guns to reveal TWITLOSS Reason #1




Y'all watch Oprah right? Even if you don't watch her show, you'd have to live under a rock if you've never heard anyone talk about having an A-Ha moment.

You can never predict when that moment is going to strike, you know when the light bulb goes off over your head, the stars align and suddenly everything clicks.

TWITLOSS Reason #1: The A-Ha moment

Stardate: 313184.64 (6 months ago)

It was a dark and stormy night.

A lone figure, coat ill-fitting, unbuttoned and flapping in the brisk march wind steps off the driveway and gingerly over a snowbank, attempting a shortcut to reach the cold car parked on the deserted side street.

It's late, the snow is lightly falling and in a split second, one wrong step and the figure tumbles to their knees.

After a few minutes the figure attempts to rise, but unable to gain their footing and with nothing to use as leverage to pull themselves to their feet, resistance the effort is futile.

A puff of warm air expelled in effort from the victim's mouth can been seen mingling with the brisk night air as the struggle to rise continues like a beached whale flopping around in the snow.

Heelp! Heelp! I've Fallen and I'm Too Fat to Get Up!

Finally, after what seem like an eternity, somehow the figure manages to lumber to their feet with the moans and groans of their efforts the only noise disturbing the still, silent night.

For any who haven't figured out yet where this story is going...I am the lone gunman on the grassy knoll figure and yes this event spawned my A-Ha moment. This was my turning point. The light bulb went off and thankfully stayed on.

I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit that #Twitloss reasons 2-5 were not pathetic enough excuses for me to take stock of my life and realize that changes were necessary.

For whatever reason, this was the experience that "broke the camel's back" and turned it around for me.

TWITLOSS REASON #1

Hear Ye Hear Ye: Last Chance to Win a Book of Romance (or whatever you want)

Good people of The Blog

There's a CONTEST I say,

So please don't delay.

For here's a great chance,

Your bookcase to enhance.

To enter is free,

Just post a comment for me to see.

LINK HERE. Go forth and post!

Contest closes Sept 16, 2010

Workout Wednesday: TWITLOSS: The Evolution

No book review this week,

but please enjoy this fAB-ulous treat!

#TWITLOSS: The Evolution

This is how it starts

and this doesn't help

And then one day this

so then you get mad

and you try to do this

so you can stop this

Cuz this doesn't work

And as the days fly by

And you do lots of this

and this

and this

You pray the #'s decrease on this

Good Luck Everyone

On Your Own

TWITLOSS Journey

Successful Travels

TWITLOSS! My Top 5 Reasons To Lose Weight: Reason 2 Stairs, Shoes and Potty Break Blues

David "Bend it Like" Beckham is taking a break from Footie to Ab-nnounce  Reason #2....mmmmmm why thank you Becks *fans self*!



There are lots of simple everyday activities that people take for granted...unless you can't do them.

Stairway to...Hell

Stairs to climb each day,

= a lot of work and no play.

Having a big body's no help,

and if you slip and fall you're sure to yelp.

Sometimes it's just easier to do it this way!

Bend and stretch, reach for your...toes

One, two I'm feeling blue.

Three, four cuz I can't reach the floor.

Five, six I've laces to tie,

Seven, eight but I`m too fat and that's no lie.

In the Water Closet

It's quite easy to see,

that if I need to pee,

Small bathroom stalls,

are not a friend to me.

I've got nothing else,

so I'll just let this graphic

speak for itself.

'Nuf Said

TWITLOSS REASON #2

TWITLOSS! My Top 5 Reasons To Lose Weight: Reason 3 Too Fat to Find Release

He may be travelling ATWFF, but America's favorite Big Brother 11 houseguest Jeff Schroeder (btw he's my reality TV crush) took some time out of his busy schedule to host TWITLOSS Reason #3


Now don’t y’all get excited and let the title of my post scare you away thinking I am going to reveal TMI about my release issues.

I do have issues, but it's not what you are imagining.

Car manufacturer’s today provide drivers with all the comforts and modern conveniences known to man, including a little lever right inside your car to open the gas hatch. Mine just happens to be on the floor between the seat and the door. Just pull up on the lever and voila - the gas cap door pops open.

How convenient is that? A great invention right? Easy Peasy! Well if you can’t reach the lever past your heaving bosoms and over your jelly-belly roll of a stomach then yes it becomes an issue.

Why you ask? Well I am lazy and I patronize the full-service gas station where they pump the gas for you, but I do have some responsibility - TO RELEASE THE HATCH.

If I can’t reach it then a) I have to undo my seat belt, open the car door and struggle to reach that pesky little lever or b) even worse I have to get out of the car…wait if I have to go to all that trouble then I may as well just pump the darn gas myself!

This may seem like a pretty lame and trivial reason to some, but the fact that I chose it as TWITLOSS Reason #3 should tell you just how much the experience aggravated and actually embarrassed me week after week after week.

TWITLOSS Reason #3

TWITLOSS! My Top 5 Reasons To Lose Weight: Reason 4 On The Broken Seat

Twitloss Reason #4 is being "served up" today courtesy of Spanish Tennis Player "Hot Sauce" Fernando "Tabasco" Verdasco fresh off his Round of 16 Finish at the 2010 US Open




When you are fat/overweight/obese (take your pick), a chair can be a fragile thing

Ode To The Chair

There once was an innocent chair,
My weight it was too much to bare.
So when I sat down and it fell to the ground,
It was time to reduce
pound by pound!

Yes I have broken a few chairs over the years and it's not something I am proud of, but it is a fact.

One of my favorite thinks to do in the summer is sit in my backyard and read a book. Backyard+sun+book+lawn chair = a happy bookpimp.

So last summer when I broke my lawn chair and went on the hunt for a new one, I discovered an interesting fact. If you have a large, overweight, fat fanny...it will not fit into most folding lawn chairs. Ohhhh in some cases I managed to barely squeeze my a$$ in between the arm rests (think round peg in square hole), but I did not want to end up looking like this...EEEK!


With this terrifying image in mind, I knew unless I wanted to spend my entire summer reading indoors, drastic action was required. I hereby give you another reason for starting my weight loss journey again.

TWITLOSS REASON #4

TWITLOSS! My Top 5 Reasons To Lose Weight: Reason 5 Button Up Baby

REASON #5 is brought to you today by cutie patootie

Matt Bomer from USA's White Collar

Baby It's Cold Outside - You Better Button Up...If Only You Could

Ode to the Winter Coat

Red coat, green coat, it matters not to me.
But I will get one to button this year,
Just you "weight" and see!!

Brrrrrrrrrr. I live in Canada - the great white north where it's cold, blustery and snowy for approximately 5 months of the year. These weather conditions require that I wear a winter coat - at least if I don't want to freeze my a$$ off while out in public and especially while shovelling snow.

If you have to wear your coat open in the dead of winter because you can't do up the zipper, let alone the buttons...well I think you can see where this might be a problem.

Not one day during the winter of 2009/2010 was I able to button my already oversize winter coat. I am determined not to have a repeat performance during the winter of 2010/2011.

TWITLOSS Reason #5

Workout Wednesday: Hot Island Nights vs Ridin' a Bike

What would I rather be doing?

My dreams: A visit to a hot island paradise wins hands down
My reality: Ride a dumb bike at the gym

Well at least if I'm stuck at the gym, I can read about Hot Island Nights!

Reality sucks results

Making the Grade:B
Pages read 217 pages
Riding Time 1 hours 56 minutes
Calories Burned 799
Distance Peddled 42.01

For My Thoughts

Hot Island Nights by Sarah Mayberry was a great choice for this week's challenge. I find myself picking shorter books for the read-n-ride challenge since I want to complete a book a week, but it's getting harder and harder to meet the goal (more about that in my upcoming posts on TWITLOSS during my 6 month blogaversary celebration).

Prim, proper, conservative English rose Elizabeth Mannen receives some news that rocks her perfectly planned life, causing her to break off her engagement to her equally stuffy English fiance (aka Droopy Drawers, so coined by Elizabeth's best friend) and trek half way around the world to an Australian island hot spot in search of answers. She sure as heck wasn't prepared when Nathan Jones answered the door clad only in a low slung towel precariously tucked about his hips. And her English sensibilities were equally affronted when the Aussie charmer insisted on calling her Betsy and Lizzie. I personally like nicknames, so I found it quite amusing.

Nathan Jones isn't quite the carefree Aussie "mate" he appears to be. He's got a whole boatload of his own demons he's trying to work through. A tragic event in his life has caused him to drown his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle (beer, vodka whatever's close at hand), just so he can make it through the day. Mayberry does a really good job making you experience Nathan's grief right along with him.

Elizabeth and her cool, calming influence seems to be just what Nathan needs as he deals with his debilitating loss and slowly helps him find his way back to the land of the living. Hot Island Nights was a beautiful story of healing and understanding and Nathan and Lizzie make a potent couple.

Although this is a Harlequin Blaze, it seemed longer than its 217 pages and read with more depth of story and character than a lot of other similar books. There were lots of hot, steamy sex scenes and chemistry between Nathan and Elizabeth (after all it is a Blaze). Lizzie's previous sexual experiences with Droopy Drawers were lacking and pedestrian to say the least, but Nahtan's just the man to help Lizzie broaden her sexual horizons.

I've said this before about Mayberry whose heroes are Aussie men...there is nothing sexier than a hero with an accent - even if it is only in my head.

Take a trip down under and enjoy some Hot Island Nights.



Book Description

Elizabeth Mason didn't intend to abandon her very proper life. But that's the best way to find her true—and less proper—self. So here she is in Australia, standing in front of a man who's clad only in a towel. Nathan Jones is so tempting he could be the ideal candidate to help this good girl be very bad!

Sure enough, thanks to Nathan's talented hands, Elizabeth is living all her sensual fantasies. And while the sex is great, something more is developing. She trusts him, and wants to share her secrets with him, and... Suddenly this feels more like a real relationship than some fun in the sun. Luckily, there's a cure for too much commitment—more wickedness!

The Makeover, Not to be Confused with The Hangover - It Was Long Overdue

In honour of my 6 short months in the blogosphere, I decided to take the plunge and give my blog a much needed makeover.  It was time but since I barely know what I am doing, you can understand why I was a little gun shy to make any changes.  Plus I vowed I wouldn't ever mess around with it again after the last time..if it ain't broke...don't fix it (words to live by).  On the flip side...nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 The last time I attempted to make any changes, the results were disastrous, so last night I was quaking in my boots (OK they were actually my slippers), my finger shaking and poised over the save button for about 5 minutes before I actually forced myself to Just DO EEET.

THANK YOU GOD I didn't screw it up.

 Whadda y'all think about my new layout?  How did I do?  Yay or Nay?

Don't forget to enter my Mini Celebration G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y.  Just leave a comment on this post here for a chance to win FREE books.

Malkom: My One True Demon Love

Making the Grade: A


For My Thoughts

I don't consider myself to be a Para-Fan (hey I think I just coined a new phase...not be be confused with paraffin...as in wax), but actually consider myself to be quite a para-newbie. Given the option, paranormal would not be the genre of my choice to read.

Demon From the Dark is my first ever Kresley Cole novel and it certainly won't be my last. Cole's writing is freaking hilarious and yowza the story between Malkom and Carrow was mega-watt, smokin' hot! Malkom's got horns and tat's and strategically placed piercings and he's strong and protective and, and I could go on and on... ohh ya and I'm sure Carrow had a few things going for her as well. What a keeper I picked to read *fans self*. Back list here I come!

So how then did Demon From the Dark get into my TBR pile? I've given it some thought and here is what I came up with.
1. Scorching hot cover art including 6 pack abs and a rockin' hip tat...Yum!
2. Intriguing back cover blurb - I can dig it.
3. Flipping through the book at Hell-Mart I chanced upon a particular passage involving a steamy bath scene and a soft wash cloth.

Ca-Ching...book in basket..checkout here I come...ring me up Scottie!

I'm not going to go into great detail about the book, I just have a few points I want to hi-light showcasing Ms. Cole's witty and funny sense of humor.

Carrow the good-time witch of the coven has been kidnapped and imprisoned by the Evil-doers to capture and lure the Vemon - Malkom Slaine into their clutches for their evil-doing experiments. Here is Carrow's response when she finds out what they expect her to do:

"As much as I appreciate the invitation to help out with your vemon-retrieval problem, I'm afraid I'm going to have to R.S.V.F.U."

OMG R.S.V.F.U.? Are you kidding me? Freaking hilarious!

One prevalent problem throughout the story involves communication. Malkom's native tongue is Demonish...no Anglish. Carrow doesn't speak or understand Demonish. She's strictly a straight up English sorta girl. There were so many funny scenes resulting from the language barrier. Here is one of my favorites.
Carrow to Malkom:

"I should name you Wilson the Volleyball. You understand as much as Wilson did and respond as infrequently. What's that?" She cupped her ear as if the demon had spoken. "No, no your're right, Wilson was more hygienic."

OMG! I think I snorted coffee out my nose reading that one.

Malkom definitely needs a little help when dealing with the ladies. He's about 400 years old and surprise...dude is still a Virgin? Wha???? At one point when trying to impress and woo Carrow, he collects some ghoul heads on pikes and presents them to her as an offering like he's giving her a bouquet of roses. He wouldn't make for good material on any season of The Bachelor. Can't you just picture the final ceremony? "Carrow will you accept this...severed ghoul head?" LOL!

My final funny revolves around Carrow's magical powers and how they are regenerated. She needs happy, positive vibes to increase the power of her own magic. The happier the feelings, the more power she can harness for herself. So because she's been imprisoned and her powers are at an all-time low...a happy Malkom will be a big benefit to Carrow. Here's the passage when Carrow makes this realization:

She'd bet sex with him would make Malkom very satisfied. The demon was turning out to be an unpredictable, feral, bone-and-head-collecting, sexually ravenous happiness battery. She swallowed. All I have to do is plug him in.

Go! Buy! Laugh! Enjoy!
You will not be disappointed.

read an excerpt here

Back Cover Blurb:A dangerous demon she can't resist...
Malkom Slaine: tormented by his sordid past and racked by vampiric hungers, he's pushed to the brink by the green-eyed beauty under his guard.

A maddening witch he aches to claim...
Carrow Graie: hiding her own sorrows, she lives only for the next party or prank. Until she meets a tortured warrior worth saving.

Trapped together in a savage prison...
For them to survive, Malkom must unleash both the demon and vampire inside him. When he becomes the nightmare his own people feared, will he lose the woman he craves body and soul?

Joe Wants to Know

What Are You Waiting For?

An engraved invitation?

So no new episode of True Blood this week? Don't cry, don't despair and no worries because Alcide's here in all his howling, AB-u-lous hawtness, hard at work "pimping" my blog contest for me.

So get your were-wolf loving butt over to my Mini Celebration Post and enter a comment to win. It's free...It's easy...and best of all Alcide says Just Do It (or wait...maybe that was Nike?). Anyhooooo just do what the man tells you to!

Click here and post a comment - How hard is that?

And don't forget to check back this week for my own version of David Letterman's Top 10 5 personal reasons for #TWITLOSS..it'll be good for a few smiles and chuckles...trust me.

The Book Pimp Mid-Season Celebration

Cel-e-brate good times...come on! (sing it Kool and the Gang)

My baby blog is 6 months old...my how time flies when you're having fun! In addition, I've been on my #Twitloss journey for almost 6 months now as I rededicated myself to losing weight and getting healthy.

This Blog started out as a place to post my book reviews. I was already doing it on Goodreads, Amazon and Chapters, but when one of my tweeps Jen @Twimom227 started her own blog (only hers is much bigger and better), it inspired me to start my own as well. It was really slow going at first, since I knew nothing about blogs or how to set one up. I visited a lot of blogs of people I follow on twitter (and thanks to all who helped and inspired @buckeyegirl31 , @bellie7 , @smexybooks , @Pearl_828 , @larissa_sarah , @parajunkee ) to see what they were doing and getting ideas for the things I liked and wanted to have on my own blog. I discovered it's A LOT of work.

I don't blog a lot frankly because I don't have that much time, I'm not that interesting and I can barely read more than 1 book a week and provide a review.

One of the weekly features I started in conjunction with my blog was my Workout Wednesday Challenge, which in conjunction with my #Twitloss journey seemed to be a perfect fit with my love of reading. My goal was to read a book a week at the gym and keep track of calories burned, distance ridden, pages read and time spend peddling.

In the upcoming 2 weeks, I will be posting my Top 5 reasons why I was re-energized for my #Twitloss journey as well as my 6 month weight loss results. Plus some amazing numbers for a mid-season tally of the Workout Wednesday results.

So in honour of my mini milestone, I'm having a G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y and there will be 2 prizes and 2 lucky winners! Double the pleasure, double the fun!

Each prize will consist of a $10.00 maximum book purchase from The Book Depository. So as long as they ship to the country you live in - go ahead and enter.

The rules are simple. You don't have to follow this blog or follow me on twitter or even read this blog. All you have to do is post a comment below and leave a way for me to contact you if you're the lucky winner.

The contest is open until midnight Thursday Sept 16, 2010. The winners will be chosen at random (hello mom? can you pick 2 numbers for me between 1 and ????? - I know it's not very scientific, but it's easy and I'm lazy).

So you have lots of time to enter - go forth and post a comment.

Workout Wednesday: Date #8 was Grrrreat!

Hey! Jill Shalvis stole my mantra for the name of her book! The Heat is On refrains over and over again in my head as I put the peddle to the metal week after week to meet my read-n-ride deadline. I guess I'm in good company.






♥♥♥♥
Pages read 218 pages
Riding Time 2 hours 1 minutes
Calories Burned 813
Distance Peddled 42.13







For My Thoughts


So there were 2 reasons The Heat is On by Jill Shalvis was this week's choice for the weekly read-n-ride challenge.

1. Jill Shalvis (enough said).
2. I needed something short, sweet and sexy...ok the sexy part is an added bonus, but I'm not above doing whatever it takes to get the job done.

Let me get this random thought out of the way first...the character's names. Bella...Jacob; Bella...Jacob...Whaaaa??? Wait was I reading Twilight this week LOL? You think this means Ms. Shalvis is Team Jacob?

In this day and age of social networking and hooking up, on-line dating seems like the perfect way for Bella Manchelli and Jacob Madden to meet. In The Heat is On, Bella's experience can best be summed up by: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The Good:
As someone who never stays in one place long enough to get bored, you meet a group of guys (no last names required), have fun and then move on since you have no interest in any long term commitment to tie you down. If you're really lucky, you meet a tall, dark and drop-dead sexy guy, get your freak-on on the first date and slink away before that morning after awkwardness descends. Saving the best for last...date #8 was GRRREAT!

The Bad:
The men of dates #1-#7 are getting shot at and when one of them is discovered murdered at the back door of your place of employment...turns out they weren't quite so lucky and now neither are you.

The Ugly:
You have a deranged stalker after you determined to eliminate the competition for your affections so he can have you all to himself.

Back to The Good: The cop investigating the murder? Well it's none other than Jacob Madden...hot, sexy date #8. Imagine his surprise when he turns up in cop mode the "morning after" only to discover you really weren't planning on moving to Siberia like you told him and are in fact, at the center of his police investigation.

The Heat is On is a quick easy read, with lots of sizzle and a nice balance between the romance and suspense action. Shalvis' trademark witty style of writing is of course always a plus.

Got a few hours to kill? Don't spend it trolling those on-line dating sites...read The Heat is On!