Book Review: “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Hello there!

In a way to get me ready for fall and of course, Halloween, I wanted to find something that would reflect my mood and I thought my favorite thrillers. Now, I am not a very big fan of horror despite my love for vampires, witches and werewolves, but I do enjoy a good psychological thriller here and there.

I thought it was Victoria Helen Stone’s Jane Doe that got me interested in this genre, but then I started to remember when I was in high school, and I took two separate classes for each semester and the first was Novels where my interest in the genre was tested as we read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Helter Skelter by Curt Gentry and Vincent Bugliosi. However, it wasn’t until I went into Short Stories that I was introduced to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s classic The Yellow Wall–Paper and this really made me realize that this was only the beginning.

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A woman and her husband rent a summer house, but what should be a restful getaway turns into a suffocating psychological battle. This chilling account of postpartum depression and a husband’s controlling behavior in the guise of treatment will leave you breathless. 

taken from Goodreads.

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When I finally decided that I would re-read this story, I did it for a specfic reasons: I didn’t exactly remember how it ended, all I could figure out was that it creeped me out. Fast forward, I wasn’t wrong with my initial rememberance but things that wouldn’t make sense to me at that time of the first read; I knew of very little history about how women were treated in that timeframe, so by the time I had went back to it, I had the knowledge to back everything up in my brain.

Our main character Jane is forced to stay indoors and recover from a fit of “nervousness” as she calls it, and if the word “baby” didn’t turn up in a sentence later, we wouldn’t know it’s actually name as we call it postpartum depression. For her and other women of that time, it had another name completely “hysteria” and it wasn’t the best diagnosis for a woman as there is evidence (and lots of it!) towards how husbands, sons, brothers, and doctors put various women and girls in asylums for their overwhelming feelings in the 19th Century.

“It is the strangest yellow, that wallpaper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw – not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.”

Jane is unique though as her husband is a physician and he seems to love her enough, to support her in this condition at home. So, she is forced to recover in the master bedroom of their rental mansion, where it has decaying yellow wallpaper everywhere. Jane absolutely hates it. I understand her frustrations about it though, as I had purchased a pillow and sheet set that showed the color yellow to be as bright as the sun, but then we unwrapped it and found that the pillowcase fits the description to a T, but the sheet itself does not. It is so light that if nobody knew I had a brown mattress underneath, they certainly would as soon as they walked into my room… Anywho, like one does when they cannot explore freely, Jane starts to notice various things like the odd patterns and the disturbing figure that seems to appear at night.

Despite its small size, it definitely packs a punch worthy of a regular novel. I mean, as much as I love Frankenstein, my drive towards this book was stronger, and that’s saying something!

For anyone out there who is not too interested in horror, I highly suggest giving this story a shot before the end of the month. Although, if you feel comfortable waiting until after the Halloween festivities then by all means wait it out, but trust me when I say, you may end up enjoying it more than you think and want more like it afterwards, so as a nice warning, be sure to prepare yourselves!

Have you read Charlotte’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” before? If your answer is yes, how did you come across it? I’d also like to know what you thought about it the first time you read it. Please tell me everything in the comments below!

Book Review: “Roping the Cowboy” by Kennedy Fox

Hello again!

EDIT: I didn’t really have a good time of figuring out the best way of publishing my posts – I do hope you enjoy this review just as much though. Don’t worry tomorrow, we’ll carry on as normally!

April was productive but not as much last month…

I was able to finish six books. I have never done this before; my usual quota is three to four books each month, but I was able to convert the majority of my reads into audiobooks or they were a part of my second list of books I am keeping track of this year. If you are curious about this, you can click here to be transported to that blog post.

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Originally on the Read Me Romance podcast. This eBook release is a novella set in the world of the Bishop Brothers with bonus chapters & an extended epilogue!

An unforgettable one-night stand filled with heat and passion starts the unraveling of a love-hate feud between a small-town baker and an arrogant cowboy.

When Katarina shows up at the Circle B Ranch Bed & Breakfast to serve her new gluten-free, sugar-free, organic pastries, Braxton decides to make her life hell for kicking him out the next morning and then pretending he never existed.

First step, make fun of her tasteless muffins.
Second step, get revenge.

Soon the duo are at each other’s throats, getting even until things go too far and the chemistry burns too hot.

Kat claims their night together meant nothing.
He’s determined to prove her wrong.

taken from Goodreads.

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If you didn’t know, I absolutely love the ladies of Kennedy Fox and I’ve actually had this book for a few months now. Anytime they have multiple books out for free, I am taking an advantage of the opportunity and I had just finished a great month of reading and wanted to basically sink my teeth into something juicy so I thought I could get a move on with the Circle B Ranch series, since I have quite a collection piling up on my Kindle, and I just thought if you needed a nice and sexy short story, you could look into these books soon!

“Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.” I smirk. “You know I’m immune to that cowboy Casanova bullshit, right?”

This quote is exactly something I’d say prior to reading any cowboy-ish books. I thought I would only fold for Vanessa Vale’s stuff since she loves to discuss dirty cowboys, but oh no, apparently Kennedy Fox is taking me for a ride as well!

Honestly, this was a great way to start the entire series. You rarely see novellas at the top of the series–or at least I don’t!–but I think the main reason why it worked so well is because not a lot of women out there enjoy cowboys. I live in the Midwest and I can personally tell you that I’ve found country dudes somewhat fake. There’s a difference between acting the part and actually being a cowboy, like Ree Drummond has herself a true cowboy, with husband Ladd. He works on many different areas on the ranch and not a lot of guys who want to be like that can do it physically.

I will be diving into the other books of this series this summer as a little treat to myself. Here are the ones that have been sitting in the depths of my e-reader for way too long: Catching the Cowboy and Kissing the Cowboy. There are many reasons why I absolutely love Kennedy Fox books but the one thing I love the most is that all of their books (until said otherwise!) are standalones! They may belong in a series and some characters from the other stories can join in through background scenes, and this makes me feel better for not having the exact order to know everything. Jasinda Wilder writes her books in the same way, or at least the Badd Brothers series can be read out of order too, which has helped me get over my insecurities for not knowing certain players and stories.

Are you reading the ‘Circle B Ranch’ series by Kennedy Fox too? Which book or couple do you love the most? How are you about the cowboys involved too?

Blogmas | Bad Kitty (writing prompt)

Howdy!

I was really in the mood to write some holiday inspired stories this year as my original idea of double the amount of Christmas albums didn’t exactly pan out, so I thought maybe this would be a better option for myself!

I found this prompt on Pinterest, and the site where you can visit to see more is Holloway’s Hideaway. As a cat owner, I thought this was just the perfect prompt for me to do. Although I have to say, none of our cats (including Oliver) are never inside long enough to take an interest in the actual fully decorated Christmas tree. My sister and brother-in-law’s cats are another story, they came home one night to find that somebody might’ve been stuck some place and managed to take the lower half of the tinsel off the tree entirely as there was a long strand lying across the floor.

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They watched endlessly as the family cat began the assault on the newly decorated Christmas tree.

We start our story in a family home out in the country, the closet town is about 15 miles so the people that normally live in the house, don’t get very many distributions unless it’s grunting noises from the cows getting comfortable outside in the stable. Other than that, it’s relativity peaceful.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, and the family has their daughter Karri and her children staying over for the festive time. Bob, the patriarch of the household is the last to go to bed but first he silently checks up on everybody in the guest rooms to see them queityly dreaming away in their beds. He notices that the family cat Bozo has made himself a nice little bed in between his daughter’s legs, which made him smile because he knows how much Bozo misses the family being around the house constantly. After overseeing the rooms, he slowly makes his way into his own bedroom to fall asleep before the real fun begins.

Unfortunately, he made a bad mistake by leaving the bedroom door of Karri’s room slightly open. Bozo wasn’t necessarily getting a good night’s sleep with his former buddy, he was getting popped on the head and at the last, she rolled over both of her legs together in a tight squeeze that caused the cat to snap and start growling at her. At this time, Karri was in and out of consciousness and heard a growl coming from below her legs. She turned around halfway to see a furious cat missing half of its tail. She began to look around the headboard in case there was a bug of some sort and he was warning her about it, but nope. As soon as she made the turnaround, her legs spread apart and the cat took off running out of the room!

Bozo got the entrance of the living room before stopping to lick himself at the tail to make sure everything wasn’t damaged or worse fluffed up more than usual. He thought about trying out the kid’s room but figured that was a death trap waiting to happen, so he decided to stay out of those rooms completely.

Since it would be Christmas tomorrow, the children talked their grandparents to leave the twinkle lights on so that Santa would be see them from the patio doors. Bozo was over nine years old, he’s been around Christmas trees before but for the first time ever, the lights were enchanting to him. They were almost like a siren calling out to him, and once he saw them, he immediately was put into a trance-like state and began to sniff the pines and ornaments from both the past and present. The smells were intoxicating for the old cat, he suddenly lost control of his body and got up on his hind legs and started to pick at the wires of the lights and fluffy strand of tinsel that surrounded the tree from top to bottom.

What puzzled Bozo was the fact that he wasn’t interested in the nativity scene that was about two inches from his back paws. He has a history with rubbing up against them that would result in knocking one or two down but for once he turned his attention to the actual tree itself.

Despite being colorblind he quickly figured out the lights were three wires fused together to create a small but strong band. When he was a kitten, Bob’s children used to feed little Bozo small bites of Twizzlers’ so he mesmerized that twisty pattern and just assumed this was a special treat all around the Christmas tree. He began to chew on the cords and with his sharp teeth made some tiny puncture marks along the bright lights. He wasn’t very interested in the lights themselves, as they were slightly warm on the roof of his mouth, the wires were cool to the touch so there wasn’t anything to worry for that.

Once he realized that he wasn’t able to swallow anything with each bite, he decided to walk around on his back legs to the other side but still the same result happened. Bozo grew frustrated, he hated to be teased with his food, especially his treats so then he became radical with his decision to sit back up and lick the sides of his mouth, all the while still looking up at the tree, contemplating a good spot to try next and he latched onto a spot directly in the middle of the tree, where all of the glass and memorable baubles were placed.

Once finding his prey, he took a couple of steps back from his original position and crouched down to the floor, never breaking contact with his special spot. He was ready and used all of his energy to leap across the room to land at the wrong spot and he realized how bad he calculated his misfortune and when he went to climb the rest of the way, the hook of an ornament stab him in the padding of his right back paw and he let out a high-pitched meow, suddenly spooked he jumped off of the tree for good but not without it falling down with him.

He landed at the corner of the tree so when it fell in front of him, he wasn’t injured by it too much. There were small droplets of blood that came off the bottom of his paw but all the floor contained was a dark green mess with golden-sparkled tinsel and rainbow colored lights that were slightly dimmed as the plug was almost out of its socket in the wall. There was also shattered glass on and underneath the disgraced tree. Bozo was stunned as he just stood in front of him. The puzzled look on his face continued as the family, who were awaken by the sheer thud and glass breaking, ran into the room with their mouths open wide looking at both the mess and the unsuspecting cat at the side.

So what did you think of this? Tell me a story about your cat (or dog) ruining something very beloved to you? How do you keep your animals away from the Christmas decorations in your home?

#FWF – Where Are You Now?

Today is Friday and it’s been a while since I’ve actually done a post for Kellie Elmore’s Free Write Friday, but she hasn’t posted a prompt for today at the moment, and I’m quite bored at the moment. I decided to go look for a random prompt from one of her older ones and this one was picked randomly and I am starting to love these word bank prompts. She just selects a bunch of random words that could go together and this prompt of words was posted in 2012 and weirdly enough on a 14th. Creepy! I hope you enjoy it!

bewitched, agony, awe, dismay, enamored, sacred, nirvana, fury

Last night, didn’t happen. Did it? That’s what Alissa’s first thought was, waking up in her hospital room. She and her friend Lucy were coming back from a friend’s house and then all of a sudden, she finds herself in a hospital bed with unfamiliar sounds. Nobody was around and she had some pain in her forehead. What the hell happened? Five seconds later, a random guy comes walking in. He was a weird creature, black shirt that obviously came from Hot Topic, dark jeans with silver chains hanging down in the back, and he had long hair. He passed the bed and didn’t realize she was awake. He had some small cuts and bruises on his hands and face. She wondered if he had gotten into a fight and somehow forgot where his room was, then as he moved from one side of the room to the next, he noticed her. “Oh, hi. How are you feeling?” This stranger said to her. “I’m fine.” lie. “Who are you?” She stared at him blankly and he spoke sweetly “My name is Austen Roberts. You and your friend hit our tour bus. We saved you guys.” Oh so that’s what happened. “I’m sorry about that. Do you know where my friend is?” and what is her name?!?! “Uhhh… yeah, my buddies Sam and Thomas are watching her. She’s doing a lot better. She’s a talker.” Austen said, “Oh, well that’s good. My name is Alissa.” She said to finally introduce herself as she was somewhat bewitched to this dark man. “Alissa, huh? Nice name.” Nice? “Thanks I think.” Alissa said in an awkward breath and as they finished talking a nurse dressed in baby blue came in with all sorts of gadgets.

A week later, Alissa’s friend Lucy, who she found out only had minor cuts and a broken leg, had went home without seeing her.  She did, however called Alissa’s family and within an hour after that phone call they were there by her side. Alissa was still recovering slowly. She took most of the damage in the accident. According to the police, when Lucy went to stop at the light the car the brakes stopped working and hit the bus on the passenger side. Both the police and hospital staff were in dismay that Alissa had even survived that type of crash and that the band had gotten her out of there. Speaking of the band, they hadn’t totally deserted the girls after getting a new tour bus. Two days before. Sam and Thomas, who had watched over Lucy in her room went back to their hotel room. While Austen was still there for Alissa, even though she had told him he could leave. He wasn’t easy to trick that she’d be okay by herself. So they made best of those days, he tried making her comfortable and did all things that a boyfriend would do for his girlfriend–but they weren’t dating. Hell, Austen wasn’t even her type! He was sweet and brought her some type of nirvana that she never felt with any other guy. She felt strange that this guy was caring so much for her and she was the one who basically put the dent in their tour bus. “Sooo.. when do you think I’ll be released from here?” Alissa asked her new best friend. Austen turned to her and gave her a smile grin. “I don’t know. Your physical therapist said you’re doing pretty good with walking, but getting you to sit up for more than a half hour is what’s keeping you here. Plus, your appetite hasn’t changed much since they took you off your feeding tube.” Alissa nodded her head, “so, should we be taking bets or something?” Austen chuckled, “Hmmm.. give it another two weeks. I have faith in you, you’ll get back to your old self, whatever that self may be.” He turned around again and sighed.

Austen was right, in just two weeks Alissa was finally released from the hospital. She spent close to four weeks in the hospital and now she was going to physical therapy in her hometown. Alissa and Lucy hadn’t talked to each other much in the last two weeks, but her friendship with Austen continued to grow. He was happy she was at home now, but that might he was back on the road with his band mates. Austen wasn’t the normal rocker as Alissa learned through those weeks he stayed in her room. He had the same fears, loves, and losses she did. They both hated heights and would never go skydiving, even if they were given a million dollars. They both wanted kids when their lives had settled down and they had both lost friends from crazy ordeals. In the mist of those last two weeks, they played a short game of Truth or Dare, but just ended up becoming “tell your truths” game because neither one did any dares. Alissa found out that underneath his dark armor, he was raised by his grandparents and knew how to care for sick people because he actually went to school for nursing. He also had some not so good things about him though, the police in his hometown know him by his old high school attitude rather than his new affection for people. He also had a fury with certain things that he didn’t disclose to her. Austen found out that even though, Alissa looks innocent on the outside. She had suffered with depression and was put in a foster home for eight years after her parents were in jail for drugs. The family she had been adopted to were the best family she had ever had, and Austen felt even more close to her than before.

Alissa was up and walking by herself and her appetite was better than ever. She was still afraid to get into a car, but her mother and younger sister had a surprise for her. Alissa sat in the backseat as the passenger side still freaked her out. She sat listening to Austen’s band new song on the radio, called “Where Are You Now?” She relaxed with she heard Austen’s voice. She hadn’t talked to him, face-to-face, for almost a week. Who knew being around a person for four weeks could create such a bond. Alissa knew that it was too early to be calling what they have a relationship, but in her heart she wanted to be something more to him. After thirty minutes of driving to their destination,  they had made it and all three women enter out of the car to find a small stage with four members of what Alissa thought was a hometown band, but as they continued to walk down into the stage one hairstyle was clearly familiar to her. It wasn’t until one of the other members shouted, “hey there’s Austen’s girl!” She recognized that voice to be Sam. She heard him and Austen talking to each other while she was faking asleep in the hospital. “What is this?” Alissa asked her mother and sister. “Well, the guys wanted to check up on you and Austen and I talked and thought it would be good for you to see another familiar face.” Alissa smiled and rushed over to the stage with younger sister by her side. The guys helped them on the stage and Alissa introduced them to her. Alissa’s focus was solely on Austen though. She didn’t know how to act around him, but neither did he. When she walked up to him, she tapped him on the shoulder and he spinned around to give her the biggest hug neither one of them had ever gotten. If anything could form in those four short weeks, friendship was more important than anything else, that could be formed later on if they wanted it to.

Writing Prompt: Guardian Angel

So I was on Pinterest, trying to get rid of this boredom I have right now and I decided to go through and find some nice writing prompts and maybe use one or two to do a short story as my post today. So here it goes!

Hayden sat in her class, listening to her teacher lecture to everybody about how important it was to do well on their next test plus be on their best behavior as the next day they were to have another teacher instead. Hayden usually paid attention to all of her studies, but it wasn’t her day. It wasn’t rainy or gloomy outside nor was it Monday, it was just one of those weird days that seemed to come a lot more often than they used to and as Hayden thought it was annoying in the beginning, now it was just becoming something she was getting used to on a normal basis. Hayden’s attention was what was going on outside their classroom in general. The windows had blinds on them as majority of the teachers like to keep them close, Mrs. Cloris didn’t. She liked to open hers as she found more students liked seeing the sunshine while they were busy working on their assignments. She even made a note to all of her subs to keep them open if there was a pretty day while she was gone. Hayden was looking out the window a lot more than she ever realized, even when she went home on the bus she didn’t stare out and escape for a bit like she was doing now. 

After a while Mrs. Cloris started to notice that her favorite student was losing focus on her schoolwork. As keeping the blinds open were a great thing for some students, a lot of her students paid more attention to her and the assignments as it was brighter and too bright for them to fall asleep in the middle of, so it had a plus to it. “Ms. Jennings, could you please direct your attention back to the front of the class?” Mrs. Cloris said in a slow and comforting voice, which snapped Hayden back to reality. She looked back to the front and her neck started to hurt as she had her head in that position for half the class. She missed quite a few notes and the lecture. She knew if she was going to be able to pass that test tomorrow she’d have to shape up and forget about what she saw outside. Even though, just before the bell had rung and Mrs. Cloris let them out she took one more glance outside and even mouthed the words, “goodbye” before turning her attention towards Mrs. Cloris who was standing a couple of inches away from her and was stunned to watch her look out to nothing but the wall of the next part of the school next door. “What were you looking at out there, Hayden?” Mrs. Cloris said as she stopped her honor student as she was walking past her. “The old man on the black horse.” Hayden said in a soft voice. Mrs. Cloris was fascinated with what students saw when they looked at pictures and loved to read what they saw on writing assignments, but this wasn’t one of them. “You know there’s nothing out there sweetie.” Mrs. Cloris said to be the bear of bad news. “Not if you look passed the buildings, there’s a whole world on the other side.” Hayden said with a smile. She even waved to the window as Mrs. Cloris’ other students were walking in and sitting in the seats. A couple of the new kids sitting in their seats snickered and watched her give a little wave to the wall outside.

Hayden left her classes that day and immediately went to her locker where three boys were already waiting for her. Hayden knew all of the boys, not only were they the ones who laughed at her while they were coming into Mrs. Cloris’ class earlier and saw her wave at a man and his horse that nobody could see. She just needed to drop some books off and switch some books to put in her backpack to leave. The boys had another agenda, ask her about what kind of mental problems she has wrong with her. The first boy, Derek was a tall and slender, he had dark hair and blue eyes. He was definitely the ring leader and called all the shots. “So Hayden, are you seeing things now? Always knew the smart and nerdy ones had crazy sides to them.” Derek said as his friends around chuckled with him. “I’m not seeing things. You might be seeing things if you and your friends don’t back up away from me.” Hayden said in a stern voice, she wasn’t kidding either. She knew how to protect herself. “Oh! Seriously though, tell me we didn’t actually see you waving at the wall outside the window?” Derek’s friend said, who looked like she needed a shower just to untangle the strawberry blonde birds nest on the top of his head. “I think you guys were just seeing things.” Hayden tried to brush it off, but only because explaining to them wouldn’t do much for her credibility and the fact that she couldn’t hurt them as they were still inside the school in the first place. When she finally got her stuff inside her backpack, she sprinted out of there and ignored the three boys til their voices were just a memory.

Normally, she rode the school bus home, but she’s been very interested on the property next to the school. The land was located a couple of blocks by Mrs. Cloris’ classroom. She has been riding her bike to the property everyday after school. There were always tall grass, so she could store her bike in the mess of them and climb over the fence. From honor student to a girl who didn’t care about rules anymore. She always made sure nobody was around when she’d jump over but knew somebody was watching over her. Once she was over the fence, she’d walk a few miles to the spot that was the most beautiful to her. There was an abandoned barn and old rustic, but red truck. It had been made in the 50’s or 60’s because it had that old vibe to it everytime she touched it. She’d go inside the barn ever so gently, because her worst fear was that the barn would collapse on her at any point of time and she’d be trapped in the debris. The barn smelled off fresh hay and bird poop. It was an interesting combination since she had actually talked to the land owner before and he told her that nobody’s been inside that barn in years, but the family chooses to keep up. Hayden continues to walk inside and turns to one of the rooms, to where the old horses stables were, and there were old name plates still on the stables. “Jack,” “Patches,” and “Echo” were the three names still standing on the doors. The “Jack” stall door stood open like a horse had just gotten out and then the smell of a horse came behind her. “I see you got yourself in some trouble with your teacher.” a man’s voice said behind her as a large black horse walked up beside her.

According to reports she looked up online one day, an old couple lived out here by the barn for most of their lives with their horses, then a fire broke out in their house and it was while Todd was away. His wife was apparently taking a nap and didn’t know anything about the fire and ended up dying in the fire. He was so distraught about what happened that he didn’t even bother rebuilding their family house and just started sleeping in one of the unused stalls in the barn. They all say he died of a broken heart, but some of the family members kept trying to say he had bad asthma and had died of a heart attack instead. That same night, his trusty horse “Jack” had died by his side on the other side of the wall. After the funeral was over, the sold the other horse and didn’t go into the barn again. After Hayden’s first encounter with seeing Todd and his horse Jack while she was getting off the bus one morning, she saw an old man with a shovel just watching all of the students and waving to them. When she waved back he actually gave a smile back to her. She literally thought what everybody was thinking of her right now, that she was losing her mind. Ever since she’s been sneaking onto the property to spend some time with Todd and Jack after school. “It’s nothing like what the boys saw me do.” Hayden said to him as she turned around to look at him. “They saw me wave at you.” She said in a quiet voice. “You’re not going crazy dear, you can just see your guardian angel. You should feel lucky you can.” Todd said as he cupped his hands on her face.