Book Review: A Hill of Beans (Chuckwagon Trail #3) by William J. Johnstone

A Hill of Beans by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Hill of Beans...a book I was in the mood for, and was okay, to say the least. Even though it was book three of the Chuckwagon Trail series, this is my second western I've read by Mr. William W. Johnstone, and I have to say, I really enjoyed reading this one. Yes, I gave this book three out of a five stars, but it was because it stared real slow, and then it picked up and it felt like a real western.

This book introduces Dewey "Mac" Mackenzie (well to me it introduces Mac), a man on the run from his past who one night hears a rumbling of a cattle stampede. He had two choices: either get stomped on by the cattle, or help the cattle rustlers get the heard under control. He gets them under control, and joins up with the group called the Rafter B.

At first, they didn't like him-no one warmed up to him. But the more they spend time together, even firing the horrible cook and making Mac the Chuckwagon cook, they liked him so much that they kept him on the trail till they meet trouble-trouble in the form of Van Horne and his men, and of course the Forrests, Belinda and Herbert. The Rafter B outfit moved across the trail, and they have narrowly escaped the Kiowa Tribe (I'm trying to write this in a respectful manner because Mr. William did a good job depicting them), and the action was just so beautiful. Even the scrap between Mac and Roman over Belinda was really good.

The one thing that made me a bit upset was that Mac and Colleen didn't get together. I thought it was okay for him to finally let his guard down and be with her, but it looked like it didn't happen as she fell for Malloy, the new member of the group and also a Texas Ranger. But one thing ticked me off SO MUCH was Belinda betraying them, using her feminine wiles to try and get what she wanted, even having to lie to poor Mac about what was going on until he overheard her and her husband talking and then making love (which was uncomfortable to hear.)

I wish I read the rest of this book series (or the first two books introducing Mac to me) because I really like Mac and I wish he didn't have to go to California and stayed with the Rafter B...but maybe one day it'll happen....one day....

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Book Review: Queen of Shadows, a Throne of Glass Novel by Sarah J. Maas

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Queen of Shadows...oh. My. God.

This book...this WORLD.

Hello Erilea, I missed you so much. Oh, and hello to you two, Rowan. I MISSED YOU SO MUCH AS WELL.

There is so much stuff to unpack with this book, so I'm going to start with Aelin and her returning to Rifthold to stop the Valg demons and the King (which shocked the unholy hell out of me once I read it). So Aelin returns to Rifthold and had been forming a plan to take down the evil King and his Valg commanders, and to also free her cousin and save Prince Dorian, who is trapped beneath a collar and is under the control of his father. So her plans had to deal with Aborynn (in which I fucking cringed, like holy hell I hate Aborynn SO FREAKING MUCH), which resulted in her and Lysandra becoming friends and her taking down Aboryn by letting her kill him in his sleep. They did have to save Lysandra (by 'they' I mean Aelin, Aedion, Rowan and Chaol), all the while meeting Manon and her Thirteen, and also seeing the King again and Valg!Dorian. Once they put their plan into motion-using hellfire to destroy the glass tower to bring back magic-it almost didn't work, mostly because of the King and the power of the valg, but when the King said he killed Chaol, Dorian forced the demon out of his head and ripped the collar from his neck, then with Aelin's help, they destroyed the glass castle and killed the king.

Now Manon and her Thirteen...whoo boy. Those Blackbeaks, I tell ya...hooly hell those girls went though hell, I tell ya, hell. Because Perrigton wanted to breed the witches, and Manon gave up the Yellowlegs. But once she found out what they were doing to them (thanks to Elide Lochan) she didn't send any more witches down there, even when she talked to Asterin and found out what her grandmother did to her (which was fucking terrible, by the way) and also, also...

THEY MET.

WHEN DORIAN WAS UNDER THE VALG.

MANON AND DORIAN MET.

Do I ship them? Not yet, but slowly but surely I am. Am I glad the kingdom is safe once again? Yes...yes I am. Am I fucking worried that now Perrington and Maeve and Erawan is about to let loose a war that I hope everyone on the good side wins? Yes.

And also RIP Kaltain Rompier and I'm fucking sorry Perrington treated you like shit and did horrible things to you.

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Book Review: Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder (Hannah Swensen, 1) by Joanne Fluke

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

*stands up on a podium* Hello...my name is Brittany, and...I enjoyed this book.

This was actually my first cozy mystery I've ever read in my life. I've never read anything from this genre before, and this book interested me. So I sat down and just...read it (finished it tonight, actually). And the recipes (that I really wanna try but can't because of my diabeetus) sounds so good that I wish I can eat them (in my mind I can, so that's a win-win...right?)

So what was this book about?

It's about a woman named Hannah Swensen who owns a bakery called The Cookie Jar, and she found the dead body of a man who worked at the dairy. She partners up with her brother-in-law Bill to find out who dun it and put them away. Along the way, Hannah found clues about what happened, and even roped her sister Andrea into it. The more I read this book, the more worried I gotten, so I kept on reading, and what do you know...even though the ending was fast, she found out who did it (it was Judith, which was a shame really, I never even thought about her) and I was almost at the edge of my seat trying to figure out who did it.

I liked the way the story flowed, as if I'm watching a little soap about a murder around town, and Hannah's in the middle of it. I loved Moishe, Andrea, and even Delores. I loved the little clues here and there, and I also loved how she kept dodging her mother who's trying to marry her off to every man in Lake Eden. And funny thing is,, I didn't hate the mama like I thought I would...huh.

All in all, this was a really good book and I might pick up more books from this series when I get a chance.

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Book Review: China Rich Girlfriend (Crazy Rich Asians #2) by Kevin Kwan

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book took me completely by surprise.

First, Rachel and Nick are engaged and is about to be married. Everyone that Nick and Rachel knows are invited-well all accept Eleanor Young, who didn't like Rachael in the first book. They did get married in California, but then the wedding was slipped, and Eleanor showed up-but not because she wanted Nick's forgiveness.

Eleanor found out about Rachel's real dad, Bao Gaoliao, though his son, Carlton Bao, that looks exactly like Rachel. Once Rachel found out her dad was real (and no, not an alien), she and Nick was whisked away to Shanghai, China, to meet Rachel's rich side of the family. Of course, Bao Shayoen, Carlton's mother, didn't want her husband to meet Rachel, thinking that Rachel will destroy pretty much everything she'd worked on, even though in the beginning of the book Carlton got into a car accident and someone died in it.

Of course Bao Shayao told her husband never to see or speak to Rachel ever again, even told her own son this. But then Carlton met Rachel and Nick, and found out that Rachel is the most sweetest girl ever. This book also introduced Colette Bing, a spoiled little rich girl who thought she can get away with poisoning Rachel, though her guard took the blunt of it. Even at the end, when Colette tried to manipulate Rachel into talking to Carlton, only to get her rich ass chewed out calmly and left...woof that was good.

The other thing was the Teos and how Michael was acting all rich and shit because he got money and is acting like a big shot. Astrid was legit worried about him, and even told her woes to her friend Charlie Wu, who I wanted her to be with, but at the end she left him. She didn't like how Michael was acting, even acting like a brat because she decided to leave with the maid and her son, Cassian. Michael even thought that she was fucking Charlie Wu because of all the emails and text messages they were doing, which wasn't right for him to pry into and get drunk over it.

The last and final thing was Kitty Pong/Kitty Tai and Shanghai's answer to Spencer Pratt, Bernard Tai. Basically Kitty was staying in Shanghai/Hong Kong and staying away from her crazy husband, who was pretty much treating their daughter and their whole lives like crap. He even moved them somewhere in LA, and life there sucks. She even brought a famous painting called The Palace of Eightteen Perfections and hired Corrine, whom I really didn't like. But as the novel went on, I saw why Kitty was never in LA with her family, because life there sucks so many balls. So she devised a plan to "kidnap" her daughter and took her to Singapore, where she's having the time of her life there and raising her daughter right, instead of the way Bernard wanted to raise her.

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Book Review: Ruthless Gods, (Something Dark and Holy #2) by Emily A. Duncan

Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ruthless Gods....the second book of Something Dark and Holy....can be described by two words: HOLY and SHIT. Actually, more than two words. How about HOLY SHIT BALLS AND C*CK this book right here...hit me with all the feels. From finding out that Kostya's still alive, to Kacper and Serefin getting together (and I clapped when I read it) this book took me places I'd never thought I'd go, but holy hell. I loved this book so much that when the announcement of the last and final book came out, I HAD to finish this book.

This book had some twists and turns that shocked me. One, was that The Black Vulture killed a god. No, not just a god. He killed a Death Goddess, folxs. A DEATH GODDESS. My mouth dropped he did that. And when Kacper and Serefin got together? I was happy, though shocked at the same time. I didn't even pick up on it, the Kacper/Serefin thing, but when Kacper just walked up and just straight up kissed him, telling him his feelings for him, of course I was happy for them! They deserve all the love (all these characters, actually) and the blood pool thing the Nadya went though in order to choose who she wanted to be, and choose her goddess before her goddess was killed.

But thing that shocked me the most was the reveal that Serefin and Malachiasz were brothers-well half brothers, actually. That part shocked me the most, because I wouldn't think that they were borthers, but it turns out they are. I also like the new character, Katya, the tsarevna (her official title is Tsarevna Yekaterina Vodyanova) and the Vulture Hunter. I loved her the moment she appeared (but I didn't like what she did to Serefin because holy hell WHY DID SHE DO THAT??? BUT WHY???)

(I would like to note that there were some instances when I stopped reading it because my brain wouldn't let me finish it up till now, and thank god I finished it, even though I'm sad that book two is done)

Also, my ship ALMOST got together. ALMOST. It would've been nice if they got together, really nice-they almost did right next to the blood pool before he became something else (aka the God Killer that killed Marzenya and now what is he I don't know) but when the next book come out I can't wait to read it and see what happens next.

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Book Review: Trollslayer: The 20th Anniversary by William King

Trollslayer: 20th Anniversary Edition by William King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

(*got this from NetGalley via my kindle)

This is my second time reading anything by Mr. William King. I've never read the beginning of the Felix and Gotrek books, and I'm so glad that I did, and also listen to the audio drama, which I loved so much (first time listening to that, honestly). So this book of the 20th Anniversary Edition has seven stories, each one more action filled than the next one. The stories are:

Geheimnisnacht
Wolf Riders
The Dark Beneath the World
The Mark of Slaanesh
Blood and Darkness
The Mutant Master
Ulric's Children

It's almost hard to pick which one I liked, because I loved every single one of them. My favorites are Geheimnisnacht, Ulric's Children, Wolf Riders, and Blood and Darkness. These stories told the tale of how Gotrek and Felix faced the most dangerous and brutal foes, have some touching moments here and there, and also Felix finding a little love at the same time (before she died. In which I raged very damned hard). I want to read more of this book series and the rest of the Warhammer series so I can escape to the world when I can and enjoy it.

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Book Review: Driven (Otherworld Stories) by Kelley Armstrong

Driven by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So this is my third Kelley Armstrong book I've read, and I have to say, this one was a bit of an eyeopener, though when it comes to werewolf books, I shouldn't be. Mostly because of the fact that Malcolm, a man I know is dangerous, is let back into the pack. I thought he was too unstable for it, but I guess not because he's back in, but Elena's keeping him at arm's length as the Pack helps Davis Cain, a werewolf who fond his family skinned and castrated.

So he, Elena, Clay and the rest of the Pack starts to find out who killed the Cains and why, and it turns out that two dumb Cains (well one, actually) raped and killed a girl, which turned out to be a necromancer's daughter.

Oy vey.

So of course the Pack had to stop the killing of the Cains by finding one of the rouge werewolves that works for the mercenaries and get the information out of him, and then go out and find the killers (after Clay kills one of the Cains that they were looking for.) I got worried for a moment because of the Malcolm factor, but I did relish it when Clay knocked some sense into Malcolm's fat head, because he needs it.

In fact, I never really liked Malcolm in the book because he thought he knew everything, and he kept trying to one-up Elena, but to me, he needed that asswhuppin' (that's what I'm gonna call it because it's what he deserves) and I think he knows now who's the Alpha and how the Pack works not that Elena's the Alpha.

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