Book Review: “Good Girl Gone Badd” by Jasinda Wilder

Hello!

You know ever since I decided I wasn’t going to feel guilty about reading erotica/romance this year, I’ve really taken that idea to heart considering I read three books in the same genre back-to-back. I don’t necessarily regret it but yikes! I also made a little goal to myself that I would love to read five books for May and I didn’t make it until I finished This Is War but I was committed to it and was so excited and proud that I was able to complete it, which is why I decided to publish this review a little earlier than I originally planned. I didn’t think anyone would mind either!

I’ve never read a Jasinda Wilder book before. I have seen her books on my feed, mainly Amazon and the site to track my reading goals (before I switched over to Goodreads in 2016!) but I was never attracted to them; I can tolerate BDSM but not a lot of it and her books always tend to show up on those type of lists so I would just glaze over them but as you may know by now, I have a real weakness for free e-books, and this and another book in the series are on my Kindle but I’ll explain all about that down below..

Let’s get into the review, shall we?

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Evangeline du Maurier is the definition of a good girl. Attending Yale, raised with the best tutors and etiquette instructors, she’s expected to toe the family line and be a trophy wife for a future senator. But when this good girl takes a quick getaway to clear her head, she finds a whole lot more than she’d bargained for. She finds herself in the arms of a bad boy. 

Baxter Badd. 

Big, hard-drinking, and as rough and demanding in bed as he is out of it, Bax may be the baddest brother yet... 

taken from Goodreads.

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Over the years I’ve seen a lot of drop dead gorgeous covers and you always hope (and sometimes pray) that they can live up to what the cover is basically trying to telling you, but there have been some duds and there is nothing more disappointing than a cover for a romance to be such a let down. Fortunately for me, this wasn’t one of them! I didn’t quite know what I was getting myself into with it but I was very surprised how quick I dove into it and considering I found it one day before Scarlett St. Clair’s newest installment in the Hades x Persephone series “A Touch of Malice” released and completely ignore it for like three days (and nights!) after waiting since March! I’m still shocked I did that!

I was free to do what I wanted. No one had any expectations on me. Least of all Baxter.

I didn’t know what to expect in the beginning and was a bit worried about the introduction of the two characters, because in a way, it sounded a bit odd that a woman like Evangeline would even come across a situation she had and I just didn’t think it was relatable or whatever. I still don’t but the way Baxter reacted was fine. I thought it would be a way a guy sees a woman anyways! I liked the pair and was quite taken with how Bax acted especially to Evangeline in certain scenes, the one in the diner was interesting because I never saw him in that threatening way as one might feel while coming across someone like Bax in the first place. And then, when he is explaining to her about what she wants and basically tells her to make those choices for herself, was nice and if I’m honest, very educational at the same time!

If you are not familiar with the other books in the series, especially Badd Motherf*cker, Badd Ass, and Badd To The Bone as you will properly be respectively introduced to each of the couples mentioned inside, but you don’t have to. For the most part, the story is about Bax and Evangeline but the Badd family is an important aspect of the plot and reason to the eight brothers. I have the first book but not the other two and I would love to read them as well but I don’t have any plans in reading about the rest of the books. Personally, I think basing the entire series on these eight guys is a bit much, it’s like the literature version of the K-Pop bands, for some odd reason people seem to think you can an unlimited amount of people in group and everything would be fine with it. Since I started with this book, this is the last Badd brother in the original lineup for me. I will hopefully have the review for BM sometime later next month, which is tomorrow. How crazy is that?!

Have you read “Good Girl Gone Badd” or any of the other books about the Badd brothers by Jasinda Wilder? Do you have a favorite brother? Are there any other books by Jasinda you think I should check out for the future?

Book Review: “This Is War” by Kennedy Fox

Hello!

May has been a really successful reading month for me! I don’t know how I did it but I managed to finish three books and a novella that I don’t want to talk about, because I didn’t really enjoy it that much. However, thanks to awful read, I have completed 10 books for 2021! I am really hoping they are all awesome and I thoroughly enjoy them!

This book is still technically a mystery to me, but before this, I had never read a book by Kennedy Fox (who, I, quickly found out is two women masking as one person!) all I remember was looking up ‘free e-books’ on Instagram and coming across this cover and the one for their other book called “Baby Mine” and I decided to go for it at the last minute and I am forever grateful because I really loved this story, even though it was a bit of a cliché.

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She hates him.
He loves getting under her skin.

Travis King is the worst kind of asshole.
He taunts me for being a good girl and mocks my high standards.
He’s cruel, crass, and has enough confidence to last two lifetimes.
And I hate him.

It wouldn’t matter so much if he were avoidable.
But considering he’s my older brother’s best friend and roommate, I see him more than I’d ever want to. His sculpted abs and gorgeous eyes are wasted on such an arrogant man, which makes me hate him even more.

Even though I’ve had a crush on him since I was ten, the feelings weren’t mutual and he’s made that very clear. He’s always loved getting under my skin and one night against my better judgment, I let him in my bed. I’ve succumbed to his man whore ways, but that doesn’t change a thing.

Because the King is about to get played at his own game—and lose.

Checkmate, King.

taken from Goodreads.

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I am the type of reader that judges a book by its cover, and when the main genre is romance, I am usually really picky because I don’t like to be misled and this cover was so tempting that I didn’t even wait five minutes after it finished downloading to my Kindle before I dug into it to see what all the fuss was about, and I definitely do not regret it either! For my first Kennedy Fox book, this was very promising and that truly is a good thing because I have two others by them as well that I plan on reading this summer!

A part of me was crushed that the plot was sort of a cliché.

Travis and Viola have a history, that started out cool and friendly, and then all hell broke loose for these two people. Travis King thinks of himself as sort of a sex god, and Viola is the nerd with old wounds and self-esteem issues and younger sister to Travis’s best friend Drew. My favorite part of these two characters were the snappy comebacks they would throw at each other. I couldn’t stop laughing at them! I always enjoy the little banters that go on in romance books, and what made it even better is that they’ve done it so much to each other over a 10 year span so whenever they start to have sex, they continue with their jokes and it is literally perfect!

Hello player, meet the game.

If it wasn’t for the wonderfully written sex scenes, I would have had a difficult time finishing the actual book. Honestly, there is a scene that occurs before they get it on and it comes up again later on, but we don’t get to really know what goes on and I thought it was such a viable part of the story between these two that I was kind of mad about it. As hot as the Challenger scene is, I would have loved to skip it and been on what takes place there, you know? This would be the only thing I would have changed about the entire storyline but I can live with it though.

Now we have to discuss the ending. I am usually not a huge fan of cliffhangers with these types of books, but this one really worked and has me thinking about what the hell happened in the last 12 hours before it happens. I will say I am hoping Travis didn’t do anything that stupid, but I don’t know exactly how to get him out of getting in trouble with the most important people in his life either. I am going to take a break from this series for a little bit and get back into it in the peak of summer because this was a definitely summertime type of book for me.

Sidenote: While I was attempting to finish this book last Saturday, I had my dad coming into my room to check on me every fucking five minutes and I have to say, I thought he was such a buzzkill, but it wasn’t until I was like four pages to finish that Nolan came over for a visit. I had to take an hour timeout because I did not want to think about Travis fucking King while my almost three year old nephew was showing me his new sandbox toys! I thought you might enjoy or get a laugh at the crazy interruptions.

Have you read “This Is War” by Kennedy Fox before? If you have, what were some of your thoughts on it? Without giving away what happens in the second book, could you give some insight about what happens after the cliffhanger?

Book Review: “Before Wallis: Edward VIII’s Other Women” by Rachel Trethewey

Hello!

I did not expect to finish two books this month but I am thrilled to do so, because I’m not reading as much as I did at the start of the year, so I have been feeling discouraged about it lately. And if I am reading, I’m not going as fast either, like with this book, I began reading it during the last week of March and it was smooth sailing for a while but then once I distracted with other things, I kind of lost my mojo with it.

Something you may not know about me is that I have thought if I was alive around the time that Edward was alive, I’d probably be one of his ‘royal groupies’ honestly him and Prince Albert (King George VI) were so good looking that I often wonder what exactly happened with the recent generations! I swear I think the good looks stopped after The Queen and her sister Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon. Of course, this is just my opinion on the matter!

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Wallis Simpson was the woman who stole the king’s heart and rocked the monarchy – but she was not Edward VIII’s first or only love. This book is about the women he adored before Wallis dominated his life.

There was Rosemary Leveson Gower, the girl he wanted to marry and who would have made the perfect match for a future king; the Prince’s long-term mistress, Freda Dudley Ward, who exerted a pull almost equal to Wallis over her lover, but abided by the rules of the game and knew she would never marry him. Then there was Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover, who enjoyed a domestic life with him, but realized it could not last forever and demanded nothing more than to be his mistress.

In each love affair, Edward behaved like a cross between a little boy lost and a spoilt child. Each one of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. In examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, we question whether he ever really wanted to be king.

taken from Goodreads.

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I have always wondered about Edward VIII, and how he, himself, saw the monarchy in the early 1900’s. He was an odd duck as royals go, as he would rather wear polo clothes and smoke out in public than keeping the suit and tie, discreet traditions, He also had a habit with chasing women too. As you learn in this book, there were quite a few women who had his attention before he became infatuated with Wallis Simpson.

When you first start reading, the author Rachel explains that while you will learn about the three main women in Edward’s life before meeting Wallis, later you will learn more about their lives after each relationship fizzled out. The first lady is Lady Rosemary Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, as she acts as a nurse in a field hospital created by her own mother, Millicent, The Duchess of Sutherland around 1918. It was while taking care of wounded soldiers that she met the prince for the first time.

The more I was able to learn about Rosemary, the more I fell in love with her too. It is such a shame that the King and Queen refused their son’s wish to marry her because she was the ultimate woman for the king-to-be, but it also reminds you that despite being part of the upper class of nobility and well-liked throughout the royal family, even they had their standards. If it wasn’t for King Edward VII’s “secret” relationship to Rosemary’s half-aunt Daisy, Countess of Warwick (plus her blunt opinions of politics!) Rosemary would have been the perfect bride and Queen consort to the prince,

Once that relationship was over, Edward moved onto another well known lady of nobility: Freda Dudley Ward. She was the wife of William Dudley Ward, the Liberal member of Parliament (MP) and they had two daughters and you will get to know everyone, trust me. Edward’s relationship to Freda lasted for 10 years and is the bulk of the actual book.

This is where you start to see a noticeable shift personality wise with Edward, because Rachel includes the letters he wrote to the Queen, Rosemary and Freda. He leans on Freda on support not just for a sexual release. He was as invested with Freda as if they were married like a regular couple. Honestly, at first I really wasn’t a big fan of Freda, mainly because she was next in line, but as I continued reading, I ended up changing my mind. She was first and most importantly a mother in a era where the children where mostly left with nannies but she truly loved her daughters and they came before anything, including her lovers!

And then finally, we move to Thelma Furness, Viscountess Furness. My opinion of Thelma never went away, because she just seemed so self-centered compared to her counterparts. Thelma had a twin sister named Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, and Thelma is the aunt to Gloria Vanderbilt and great-aunt to Anderson Cooper! After figuring this out, I was pretty much done with learning more about Thelma’s personal life.

He did not want to be a prince on a pedestal, but rather to be treated like an ordinary man.

One thing that I definitely kept in the back of my mind was when Prince Charles was starting his relationship with Camilla, before he met Lady Diana, because Camilla was already married, The Queen Mother and Lord Louis Mountbatten thought that Charles would ruin the monarchy because it was like when Edward met Wallis, as she was already divorced once in the beginning and then of course become divorced again to keep the prince. They had arranged that Prince Charles meet and talk to his paternal great-uncle The Duke of Windsor. Obviously we don’t know what was said but whether or not Edward had the same thoughts about Camilla, Charles didn’t care and perused her anyways.

The thing is, I was thinking that the book itself reminded me of Prince Charles, when he was running around with all of these women in the his 20’s and 30’s, before settling down, but honestly he made think about the royal family’s current situation with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Edward was never happy with his public persona as the first son of the king, and you could see it on his face that he seemed bored and sad in a way, and I think he acted out with his many relationships to find some normalcy in his life. We don’t know what truly goes on within the royal court and households so I actually saw the Harry and Meghan exit as senior members in a new light.

If you are interested in learning about the British royal family, The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and everything else that happened from 1918-1934, this is the book for you. It was a very interesting read but I only gave it three stars because it did become somewhat boring towards the end.

Have you read ‘Before Wallis’ by Rachel Trethewey yet? If you have, what did you get out of it the most? Did your opinion(s) about the previous and/or modern royals change at all?

May Playlist

Hello!

I was really wondering whether or not I would have this post ready for you. Despite knowing how easy it is getting these monthly playlists together, I still didn’t want to half-ass it. For most of the month, I’ve felt foggy about life and the only thing I’ve really enjoyed lately is music.

Now that we’re heading into the summer months and all of these different festivals and tours are setting out dates throughout the country, everything feels different. It is strange how quiet it was at this time in 2020. I am surrounded by happiness on the radio. Our favorite artists and bands didn’t just hang around in quarantine, they worked their asses off making new music for us to enjoy in this moment of freedom. I am very excited to see what goes on this summer!

I hope we start to see even more things as we go into June and eventually July. I know I’m not alone in hoping to see these changes become part of our “normal” again. However, there was a tweet I saw earlier this week, someone had mentioned that since everybody were announcing these concerts again, the measures to make sure they are accessible to everyone–meaning to people who have disabilities like me!–will be far and in between and honestly, that really sucks! I think that’ll definitely be something we will miss the most because these live-streams were our lives during the many lockdowns/quarantines. I do want to say, I only watched one free live-stream show and that was G-Eazy back in late August I think, and I really didn’t care for it. I like the audience just as much as the musicians. I feed off of their enjoyment and expressions too! So, I am hoping that maybe these festivals will live-stream different sets for people who could not go to it because of their disability!

Anyways, let’s get into the actual playlist; here were my Top 20 songs for May! If you want to check out the full list, click here to be transported to the whole Spotify playlist.

Arcade by Duncan Laurence
You and I by Leon
Lonely No More by Rob Thomas
Never Leave This Bed by Maroon 5
The Reason by Zayde Wolf
Blooming by Violet Orlandi
If I Should Die by Niia featuring Girl Ultra
Big Bad Wolf by In This Moment
Hex Girl by Dreadlight featuring Maiah Wynne
BOMBSHELLEXE by YukoEXE
Gravedigger by MXMS
Let Me Go by 3 Doors Down
I’m Not Sorry by Celeste Buckingham
Warrior by League of Legends x 2WEi featuring Edda Hayes
Wild Blood by Sam Tinnesz featuring Pep Squard
If You Love Her by Forest Blakk
Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home) by Elle King featuring Miranda Lambert
Everything I Wanted by First To Eleven
Rise Up by J2 featuring Keeley Bumford
Anarchy by Lillith Czar

I don’t know how you listen to music on a daily basis, but I’ve noticed lately that I will start with Spotify and after two or three songs in, I will go on YouTube and found a video on The Dodo channel and all of a sudden find ‘my mix’ and start playing whatever I’ve been watching on there nonstop and completely forget about what I was listening on Spotify! For the past week and a half, I’ve had to done it seven times! It doesn’t matter the time of day (or night for that matter!( but it will slip my mind and then of course, I wonder why in my Discover Weekly isn’t fitting right with the aesthetic I’ve listened to that coming Monday.

What were you listening to this May?

Nolan’s Birthday | 10 Gift Ideas Under $100

Hello!

I am so excited to do this post, I actually wanted to do this last year but I wanted to make this more for other families who have a little boy around Nolan’s age range so what was suppose to help our families, can help everyone! You can purely look at this as a wish list for him but you could look at this as ideas for Christmas too, although most of the items are under $20–I didn’t plan on that, it just happened!–I went for stuff he would love for the summertime. Every item I talk about in this post is subject to change, but even if some of them do, it would still be under $100 on Walmart’s website!

Nolan has a lot of interests, and according to his babysitter and OT, he is very smart and has a good imagination! He is very busy but he loves to get cozy with his blankets, books, stuffed animals and watch movies. And like every other little boy in the world, he loves anything wheels… so he has over 300+ cars, tractors, trucks, and a single toy wheelchair that is affectionally dubbed “Meghan’s” everytime he finds it through the basket at our house! I tried to remember the main things I knew he would enjoy the most for when I was creating the post but I think it could work for any kid in his age range too.

Blippi: Let’s Look and Find Book – $8.08

This year, I think, the theme will be about Blippi because he is utterly obsessed with this dude! He doesn’t watch him at our house so I’m not exactly familiar with him but I knew if I didn’t add anything Blippi related I’d probably get in trouble with him, so I was very happy to find this book. To me, it looks like this generation’s “Where’s Waldo” and/or “I Spy” and I think he might like it for that because he’s always had an eye for finding things – when he was a baby, he could find holes in things like clothes you didn’t even know about at the time!

It actually looks pretty hefty which considering the rest of his boxes, he might be ready for these thicker ones now.

Pinkfong Baby Shark Ultimate Sticker and Activity Book – $5.88

Last Christmas, when he went to visit Brandon’s family, he came back with a sticker book that he thoroughly enjoyed and when I saw that they had one of Baby Shark, I thought it was too cute to ignore. Nolan enjoys singing along with the songs and even has Aunt Meg doing the hand motions with her feet (thankfully they’re very easy for me to do!) but nothing is more funnier than dad trying to dance and Nolan getting mad at him for not doing it the right way!

Marvel’s Superheroes Board Box – $10.47

Nolan is starting to fall in love with superheroes, and so far he likes Marvel characters. Although at first he was saying “Batman” but now he is obsessed with the Hulk and Spider-Man.

There is a show all about the Hulk and his mates on Disney+ and I think he started watching it with the bigger kids at the babysitters during the week because we didn’t introduce it to him. I want to show him like X-Men but I also don’t want to scare the little dude either so I’m trying to hold off on as much as possible.

So while looking through Walmart’s website I saw this box full of books about Marvel’s characters, even I became a little jealous! The site says there are 12 books included and considering how cheap the entire block is, that’s really nice! They also have Pixar, Paw Patrol and Frozen blocks as well.

Large Plush Sloth Toy – $10.00

Besides his Hot Wheels cars, he also has a large amount of stuffed animals. He has two of my Husky pups in his toy hamper at our house but he also has Mimi’s cow she use to have on the kitchen table too! So, it was only right to include another one of his favorite animals to the mix, which is a sloth. There were a lot of different sloths but this was my favorite because it looks so cuddly and cute. He really would love it to pieces!

Bubble Play 64oz – $14.99

Another one of his favorite things in the world is bubbles! He has always loved bubbles since he was itty bitty, and it is so nice to see that he loves them so much because it is something that I still love too, so I thought it would be smart to include it in the list too.

M&M Character Candy Case – $3.00

This one might be a little weird, but for the past six months, Papaw has been giving him a handful of M&Ms from his secret stash and for a while, it was the only chocolate thing he would eat, but we think because they were covered in various colors that he wouldn’t see it as chocolate because everytime we tried to give him ice cream with chocolate syrup or chocolate chip cookies, he’d stay away from them.

I was hoping to find M&M plush toys but I think I will have to go on Amazon for that but then I saw these and I was like, I think he’d enjoy having the figurines up in his room.

Melissa & Doug’s Wooden Train & Race Car Paint Kits – $13.40

One of things that Nolan has been really interested to do is paint! I have to thank his occupational therapist for this because he use to hate having his hands dirty, and considering his mommy and I use to spend most of our childhood digging along the sidewalk of our nana and papaw’s house was very odd. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind getting a little messy now!

What I really liked about these kits is that they are wooden, so they are sturdy (hopefully) enough to last through Nolan’s playing and can be packed up and stored somewhere after he has grown out of them too. I just thought they would be cute to do with him or he could do them with his parents!

Garbage Truck Toys – $30.88

I have not included a lot of cars and trucks into this post because he has his fair share of these items already but if you are looking for something that could keep your child happy with multiple toys in one present, this might be your ticket for a lot of excitement!

It has over 10 trucks included and they range of various careers like construction to farming, and I thought it was pretty impressive honestly. It definitely could be worth the $30 in the end, you never know!

Play Food – $9.97

My nephew still loves his play kitchen, unfortunately, it didn’t come with food and for some odd reason, he still doesn’t have any after two years! I feel bad for him because he still “makes” us things and will use his actual snacks in the dishes so I feel like the poor kid needs something and thankfully, they are incredibly cheap on the website so that’s why I decided to include it on this post.

Melissa & Doug’s Vehicles 4-in-1 Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles – $9.79

Another thing that he really likes are puzzles. My mom bought him this little tin of puzzles for Christmas but nothing is in English nor did it come with an actual picture of how it was suppose to look like after you finish! We’ve had to hide it from him because we still don’t know what to do with it.

Once I started searching for puzzles, I was very careful as to what I was looking for, easy for all ages and most importantly for the adults, the main language is English! And I found Melissa and Doug brand of puzzles and I thought these would be perfect as you get more than one puzzle and again, they are wooden so they will definitely last longer than any of puzzle piece I think. And of course, they are of various vehicles, so I think we have a winner here.

I really hope you find this post helpful for you, as at this moment, I will not be doing a post for toddler girls but in the future, if you would like me to do it for Christmas, please let me know and I will consider the option. For anyone who have used these products in the past or present, I would also like to hear your thoughts (both good and bad!) and will relay the information back to my family.

If you could, what is one item on this list that you would purchase for their little man?