The challenge – make a Christmas cake with as few
wires/toothpick supports as possible.
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Monday, December 17, 2018
Sugar Bowls
The making of a sugar bowl.
I saw some bowls made
of Isomalt and thought I’d give it a try.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
I saw these on a website and had to give them a try. They were absolutely phenomenal. It was the first time I've made meringue and the first time I've used a blow torch on food. Here's the recipe.
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Monday, April 30, 2018
Monday, March 26, 2018
Inconclusive Evidence
Title: Inconclusive Evidence
Series: The McAllister Justice Series #3
Author: Reily Garrett
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Thriller
Monday, February 5, 2018
Sunday, November 12, 2017
Bound By Shadows
Title: Bound by Shadows
Series: The McAllister Justice Series
Author: Reily Garrett
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: November 12, 2017
Monday, November 6, 2017
Monday, July 10, 2017
Digital Velocity
The deadliest weapons are the ones we never see.
DIGITAL VELOCITY
McAllister Justice #1
Reily Garrett
Releasing July 10, 2017
The deadliest weapons are the ones we never see.
Keyboard prodigy, Lexi Donovan has risen from teenage orphan
of the streets to complete independence with little help along the way. When a
pervert threatens her friend, she sends an anonymous message to police, leading
to a firefight that leaves a cop wounded.
Detective Ethan McAllister’s well-ordered life turned upside
down the day an obscure text message led to a sexual predator’s identity and
arrest. Since then, Callouston PD’s finest can’t trace the elusive hacker. The
latest tip leads him to a brutal mutilation and a riddle indicating the identity of the next murder
victim.
The dark net houses a playground for the morally depleted
and criminally insane. When Lexi discovers the killer’s digital betting arena,
she finds herself centered in a cyber stalker’s crosshairs, a psychopath
bearing equal talent.
Street life strengthened Lexi while toughening her
protective shell, but nothing could shield her from the shrewd detective
forging a path to her heart.
“Digital
Velocity is a fast-paced
romantic suspense thriller that sophisticatedly weaves drama, excitement,
grit, raw emotions and mystery. Garrett takes her readers on a journey
where suspense and romance are taken up several notches as she unfolds and
reveals the identity of a murderer that is on the loose. With her vivid prose,
Garrett entices readers to see the bond that is brewing between Detective
Ethan McAllister and his unlikely informant.” - RT
Book Reviews
Reily is a
West Coast girl transplanted to the opposite shore. When she’s not working with
her dogs, you can find her curled up with a book or writing her next story.
Past employment as an ICU nurse, private investigator, and work in the military
police has given her countless experiences in a host of different environments
to add a real world feel to her fiction.
Over time,
and several careers, many incidents have flavored the plots of her stories.
Man’s cruelty and ingenuity for torment and torture is boundless, not contained
by an infinite imagination. Witnessing the after-effects of a teenager mugged
at knifepoint for a pair of tennis shoes, or an elderly woman stabbed
repeatedly with a screwdriver for no apparent reason, left an indelible
impression that will forever haunt her subconscious. In counterpoint, she has
observed a woman stop her vehicle in severe, snowy weather to offer her own
winter coat to a stranger, a teenager wearing a threadbare hoodie. Life’s
diversities are endless.
Though her
kids are her life, writing is Reily’s life after. The one enjoyed after the
kids are in bed or after they’re in school and the house is quiet. This is the
time she kicks back with laptop and lapdog to give her imagination free rein.
In reading,
take pleasure in a mental pause as you root for your favorite hero/heroine and
bask in their accomplishments, then share your opinions of them over a coffee
with your best friend (even if he’s four-legged). Life is short. Cherish your
time.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thursday, July 6, 2017
Friday, June 2, 2017
Monday, May 29, 2017
White Hot
The Hidden Legacy series continues as Nevada and Rogan
navigate
a world where magic is the norm . . . and their relationship burns
hot.
WHITE HOT
Hidden Legacy #2
Ilona Andrews
Releasing May 30, 2017
Avon Books
The Hidden Legacy series by #1 New
York Times bestselling author Ilona Andrews continues as Nevada and Rogan
navigate a world where magic is the norm . . . and their relationship burns
hot.
Nevada
Baylor has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's
used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and
close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against
the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before,
bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan.
Rogan is a
billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever,
despite Nevada's "talent." But there's no hiding the sparks between
them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally,
and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that
nothing burns like ice.
Start the Trilogy at the beginning
What an appropriate and fitting title!
This is the first Ilona Andrews book I’ve read. Wow. It was
phenomenal from the first page. The author jumps right into a world where magic
is the norm, but even among them, there are those that stand out.
“Mad” Rogan and Nevada are mismatched, almost lovers, from
the start. They have a working past and their own misunderstandings yet agree
to work together for a greater good. Each has their own perception of past
events and future expectations, but the author takes a different track.
This book was packed full of action/misdirection and sexual
tension. Kudos to the author for keeping me up late reading. (Grrr). Each
character was so well developed, unfolding page after page through their
actions and reactions. An absolute incredible ride.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is in a class
of its own.
5 Fantastic stars
“My wife is dead.” His voice shook with
barely controlled emotion. His eyes glistened. “She’s my light. She found me in
the darkest time of my life and she saw something in me . . . She believed I
could be a better man. I didn’t deserve her or the happiness we had. She loved
me, Nevada. She loved me so much, in spite of my faults, and I was the luckiest
man alive because when I opened my eyes in the morning, I saw her next to me.
She had integrity. She was kind and intelligent, and she tried her hardest to
do the right thing so this world would be a better place for our child to grow
up in. She didn’t deserve this. She deserved to be happy. She deserved a full
and long life. Nobody had the right to rob her of it.”
His face contorted with raw pain and
grief. I was trying so hard not to cry. “I love her determination. I love her
spirit. I’m proud to have been her husband. And now she’s dead. Someone took
this wonderful—this truly beautiful—human being and turned her into a corpse. I
saw her on the morgue table. She’s just . . . cold and lifeless as if she never
was. Everything is gone except for our daughter and my memories. I have to
strive to be the man she thought I was. When my daughter grows up, she’ll ask
me why her mother was murdered and I’ll have to answer her. I have to account
for my actions. I want to tell her that I found those responsible and I made
sure they wouldn’t hurt anyone else.”
He brushed moisture from his eyes with a
furious swipe of his hand. “Nobody else will do this. Her family doesn’t have
the means, my family doesn’t care, and her employer might have murdered her.
There is only me. Will you help me? Please.”
He fell silent. He was sitting here
asking for my help and I couldn’t throw him out of my office. I just couldn’t. I
remembered when Mom sold our house to pay for Dad’s bills. I remembered when we
mortgaged the business and kept it from him, because it would’ve killed him
faster than any disease. If someone I loved was murdered, I would do the same
thing Cornelius did. He had nowhere to turn. If I slammed the door in his face
now, I wouldn’t be able to look my reflection in the eye.
I reached into the top drawer of my desk
and took out the blue new-client folder. I opened it so it faced him, placed it
on the table, and wrote $50,000 in the margins on the front. “This is my
retainer. This stays with the agency no matter what happens. It’s
nonnegotiable.”
I used my pen to circle the bottom
number on the right side. “These are our rates. This job is likely to be
high-risk, so the top rate right here will apply. As you can see, it’s a daily
and not hourly rate. Depending on the situation, I may have to charge you
hazard pay or additional expenses. The retainer acts like a deductible. Once
the amount billed to you exceeds it, you will make additional payments in installments
of $10,000. After we’re done here, you may want to go to the bank and withdraw
at least $20,000 in cash. We may have to bribe people . . .”
“Thank you.”
“This is a bad idea. Please reconsider.”
He shook his head. “No.”
I walked him through the privacy policy
and had him sign all of the waivers. “What happens once we find whoever is
responsible?”
“I’ll take care of things from there.”
“Meaning you’ll kill your wife’s
murderer.”
“It’s the way Houses handle things,”
Cornelius said.
“Well, I’m not a House. I’m a person
with a family, and I respect and try to obey the laws of this country. I won’t
hesitate to defend you or myself, but I won’t condone murder.”
“Understood,” Cornelius said. “How do we
start?”
“I need to be able to speak to Matthias
Forsberg. I need face-to-face time so I can ask him some questions. I can make
the necessary calls tomorrow, but he’ll refuse to see me.”
“You don’t have the social status and
you work for his competitor.” Cornelius nodded. “Matthias is an active participant
in the Assembly. He never misses a session. Tomorrow happens to be December
15th. The session starts at 9:00 a.m.”
“I don’t have admission to the
Assembly.” The Assembly was an unofficial executive body that governed the magic
users at state and national levels. The Texas State Assembly met in Houston. A
family had to have at least two Prime-caliber magic users in three generations
to be considered a House and each House had a single seat. Technically the
Assembly had no power within the US government, but, practically, when the
Houses spoke in one collective voice, both Congress and the White House
listened.
“A family name has to be good for
something, right?”
Cornelius smiled. It never reached his
eyes. They stayed bitter and haunted. “As a Significant and a scion of a House,
I’m free to attend the Assembly and bring a companion of my choice. I intend to
be an active participant in this investigation, Ms. Baylor.”
“Call me Nevada,” I told him. “Good.
Then we’ll meet here tomorrow at seven.”
“Ilona
Andrews" is the pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing
team. Ilona is a native-born Russian and Gordon is a former communications
sergeant in the U.S. Army. Contrary to popular belief, Gordon was never an
intelligence officer with a license to kill, and Ilona was never the mysterious
Russian spy who seduced him. They met in college, in English Composition 101,
where Ilona got a better grade. (Gordon is still sore about that.) They have
co-authored two New York Times and USA Today bestselling series—the urban
fantasy of Kate Daniels and the romantic urban fantasy of The Edge—and are
working on the next volumes for both. They live in Texas with their two
children and many dogs and cats.
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