The Blank Cookbook: For Your Recipes

The Blank Cookbook: For Your Recipes
by James Laymond Publishing

From The Publisher: The Blank Cookbook is a best-selling resource for storage and preservation of your recipes or the recipes of someone you care about. It's designed so that you can easily record your favorite recipes and find them again when you want to use them or pass them down to future generations.

It's perfect for:

• The family chef,
• Professional chefs,
• and beginning chefs wanting to have a blank cookbook that can be filled with recipes enjoyed by family and friends.

The Blank Cookbook is a book that you write that can be used for:

• Personal use and reference,
• Gifts to family or friends who enjoy your cooking,
• A journal,
• and can be passed down so future generations can experience cherished family recipes that brought people together in the past.

The pages of this blank cookbook are ordered with specific sections for:

• Ingredients needed,
• Preparation directions,
• Cooking directions,
• Serving notes to help you store the information required to consistently produce quality results,
• and family memories associated with food (whose recipe was it, whose favorite food, what family events or traditions featured this food).

Its simplicity and ease of use makes it useful and fun. It makes a great gift for mothers, fathers, newlyweds, graduates, aspiring cooks or as a house-warming present.

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Waking Up Dead

From the Publisher: When Callie Taylor died, she expected to go to heaven—or maybe hell. Instead, when she was murdered in Dallas by some jerk with a knife and a bad-mommy complex, she went to Alabama. Now she’s seen another murder, and she can’t just let it go; she must find a way to make sure the police figure out who really killed Molly McClatchy before an innocent man goes to prison, all the while trying to determine how and why she woke up dead in Alabama.

My Review: Waking Up Dead is great for anybody looking for a good read. It's only 226 pages and it has no lag in the story. I started this book later in the day and read until I was too tired to read anymore. I picked it back up the following afternoon and read the rest of it! I literally could not put it down! The story starts off with Callie Taylor being murdered in Dallas and waking up in a small town in Alabama. Callie doesn't know why she's there and also she can't figure out why she can't go past the city limits sign. Every time she tries, she ends up back in the middle of town. She's trying to get used to back in the middle of town. She's trying to get used to being a ghost so she gets into a routine of going from house to house just to be around "normal" people again. One night while "haunting" Rick and Molly McClatchy, Molly is murdered and her husband is put in jail. The only thing is, Callie knows who did it and it wasn't Rick. She just has to find someone alive to help her prove it. From there Collins (the author) takes her readers on an adventure to find a killer!

Even though Callie's a ghost, she forgets sometimes that she can no longer do human things. Like open a door, talk to people or sleep. So she goes on a mission to find someone who can help her bring the killer to justice. It's a hilarious story but also clever and touching. Callie meets, and makes some new friends. Ashara, Maw-Maw and Stephen. The three of them help Callie find evidence and put the pieces of a very scattered puzzle together. But in the end, will they wake up dead like Callie? Or do they get to the killer in time before he has a chance to kill again? You'll have to get the book and find out! You can order your copy from Amazon.com.

I do want to note that there are some scenes in the book that might be a little graphic. Like when Collins is explaining the murder of Molly McClatchy and also there is another scene toward the end of the book but it's not as graphic. All in all, it's not too bad but I did want to point it out. And there is also some language as well, but it wasn't bad enough for me to put the book down.

I really did enjoy this book and I do hope there is another Callie Taylor mystery on the way! Hint, hint ;) Maybe one where we can follow Callie as she finds her own killer?? But any Callie Taylor ghost detective mystery would be great! I am a fan :)

**** 4 stars I really liked this book!

Once again, you can order your copy from Amazon.com.

The Invasion of Heaven: The Newirth Mythology, Part 1

From the Publisher: Psychologist Loche Newirth becomes hunted when he sees a painting that opens a window into the afterlife. An ancient order of men seeking to control the art pursue him across the world, through centuries, into madness and beyond.The first part of Michael B. Koep's The Newirth Mythology-The Invasion of Heaven is mystery, adventure, myth, betrayal, murder and madness.

Psychologist Loche Newirth wonders if it was his fall: the fifty foot drop from the rocky cliff to the icy water below. Is this why he has been hallucinating? Or is it because one of his clients is dead, or his mentor has gone mad, or that his wife is leaving him? He can't bring himself to believe what he has been seeing. Insane things like a massive, searching eye. He sees it in the water below the cliff. He sees it in mirrors, on walls: a massive, crystal blue iris and fathomless pupil there in the center of his life, looking at him.

To find the answer, Loche pens the recent events of his life into a book and leaves the work behind for his mentor Doctor Marcus Rearden to interpret. As Rearden reads he plunges into the harrowing depths of Loche's reality: his loss of a client, the discovery of an unknown past, an ancient conflict over possession of the human condition, the awesome reality of the gods walking among us, and the crimes of humanity invading the hope that lies beyond the grave.

The Book Journal

There are several book journals out there, but I've found one that I believe to be one of the more, if not the most, complete and user friendly. It's simply called, "The Book Journal: Your Reading Adventure" by James Laymond Publishing.

One of the first things that I found useful (very useful) was the do-it-myself Table of Contents. That's where I write down the title of a book and the page number of The Book Journal where I put my entry about it. So if I want to find my notes/entry about "The Last Hybrid: Bloodline of Angels" by Lee Wilson, I can quickly find it and remember that detail that I had forgotten or the observations I had about the title.

The book provides two pages for each entry, providing basic information-gathering areas such as the title, genre, setting, year written, publisher, main & minor characters and other books by the author. Then it has you rate the book based on several areas such as writing quality, pace, plot, character development, and others before finally having me rate the book over all. Then it provides a full page for me to make whatever notes and critiques that I wish. It's an eye-opening, self-exploratory adventure.

It also has a section for those of us in book groups, allowing me to keep track of the books read by the group, things said in our meeting, my notes from meetings and other details including a calendar for meetings.

The book also has a section of books I've lent out to people (the book calls this section "My Lent List" which I think is cute). This is helpful because often times people will borrow a book from me and forget to ever return it. Then one day I go looking for a certain book but can't remember that I loaned it out or to whom I loaned it. So it's extremely helpful.

The Book Journal also has a list entitled "My Favorite Books," "My Wish List" and a couple other nifty areas you'll discover when you make it yours. It's a helpful journal for avid readers and I think would make an excellent Christmas or birthday gift for people on your list who like to read, are students, teachers, etc.

Purchase it on Amazon.com.

Remember Della

From the Publisher: The year is 1976 and Katherine Cameron is being interviewed by renowned journalist Willam Humphries about events that occurred in 1955, surrounding the disappearance of fellow student Della Landrey.

At the age of sixteen Katherine was besieged, night after night, by a series of escalating nightmares involving a yellow scarf. She finally came to the realization that her only hope of ending the terrifying dreams, and salvaging her sanity, was to unravel the mystery of the scarf. What she discovered intertwined her life so indelibly with Della’s - she still carries the emotional scars over twenty years later.

Meet: long-time friend and recent love interest, Em; Katherine’s precocious eight-year-old brother, Gordy; her feisty octogenarian neighbor, Mrs. Harper; and the chain smoking waitress named Clovis; who all - for various reasons - joined Katherine’s desperate quest to help a girl she hardly knew.

My Review: When I was asked by the author to review this book, I was a little hesitant. I would never on my own read a book about a girl having nightmares about a scarf. But, I'm glad I did! I will say though, it took me a few chapters to get into it and really see where it was going. It starts out a little slow but once it gets to the "meat" of the story, it is very interesting.

It is set in the 50's and is about a teenage girl, Katherine, who starts having horrible nightmares about a scarf. Of course, she has no idea where these nightmares are coming from and is desperate to make them stop. She enlists the help of her best boy friend, Em, and together they get to the bottom of the mystery. They piece the clues together and realize it's a girl who lives down the street named Della. The nightmares are Della's way of reaching out to Katherine. But why? As they figure this out, Katherine and Em become even closer and feelings come alive. So now, you are rooting for their relationship as well as wanting them to figure out what happened to Della.  

In the story you will also meet Katherine's little brother Gordy, a lady named Clovis and Ms. Harper. All of these people play key roles in helping to figure out the mystery and what has happened to Della.

I do recommend this book if you like mystery/suspense (but not the real scary kind :)) and also if you are a fan of young love :)

*I do want to note that there are a few grammatical and punctuation errors but it's not bad enough to stop reading. If you would like to purchase this book, click here.

**** 4 stars I really liked this book!

Dark Secret Love: A Story of Submission by Alison Tyler

From the Publisher: Dark Secret Love is a modern-day Story of O, a 9 1/2 Weeks-style journey fueled by lust, longing and the search for true love. Inspired by her BDSM lifestyle and based on her private diaries, Tyler draws on her twenty-five years' experience penning sultry stories to create a scorchingly hot work of autobiographical fiction, a meta-novel with reality at the core.

My Review: First let me start by saying, Erotica is one of my guilty pleasures. I absolutely love it. Most people (women, to be specific) will judge others for liking it by saying "it's filth!" or "how could you read that stuff??" Well, all I have to say is, they must not have read the right book ;)

When I was asked to read and review this novel, I was excited. Honestly, I've never heard of this author so I was anxious to receive the book and get to reading! If you have read 50 Shades, it's kinda like that but not. Does that make sense? Let me explain. It has the love story, the sex, the bondage, the pain but what this has that 50 Shades didn't was the feeling that this wasn't too far fetched. Don't get me wrong, I really liked 50 Shades...it's what got me hooked on Erotica. But when I finished the books, I knew it was a work of fiction. It felt like fiction. Dark Secret Love has none of that feeling! I guess it's partly, and mostly because it's pretty much taken from Alison Tyler's life. She writes from her own experiences and feelings. It's a very REAL feel that you don't have with the majority of books, Erotica or otherwise.

On to the book! Samantha, Sam for short, learns at a fairly young age (high school) that she has a need that most other women probably don't have. She likes to feel pain. Without it, she gets no pleasure from sex. She doesn't know why this is and feels it makes her weird and others will think she is nuts for wanting it.

So, she meets a guy while she's in high school, and he's obviously older than her but he knows what she wants without her even saying it. In her words "Some men just know." And he knew. His name was Brock and it didn't take long for him to fulfill Sam's wants and needs.

After Brock, there were other men. One of which she gets engaged to but he turns out to be not at all what Samantha thought. After him, she has flings with others until finally meeting a man who knows her better than she knows herself! The only thing is, she's scared. But scared of what? You have to buy the book to find out :)

I don't want to give too much of the story away. It's too good to give all the juicy stuff on a blog!!

As I said in the beginning, I was anxious to read this. Now that I have, I have to say it was more than I thought it would be. Be advised that this book is detailed and has mature content. Not that you would read this as a bedtime story to your child, but I just wanted to put it out there so if you are a parent, don't leave this book sitting out for your 5th grader to pick up. Unless you want to be explaining why the mean man is whipping the nice lady with a cane!! ;) You can order the book by clicking the link below.

                                                    **** 4 stars I really liked this book!

In Deep Shitake (Shitake Mystery Series #1) by Patricia Mason

From the publisher: Take one devastatingly handsome movie star. Add one outrageously sexy female private eye with a penchant for food-word obscenities. Mix in a dose of mistaken identity and a handful of Russian mobsters…And they’re all In Deep Shitake.

My review: I have had my eye on this one for months waiting for the price to drop just enough so I wouldn't feel guilty for buying it :) The cover immediately brought me in and the overview of the story sold me! I am a sucker for humorous mysteries with a love story so I knew this one was going to please. Patricia Mason has written a witty, laugh out loud story that will not disappoint!

 

Imogene Tuttle, Mo as she likes to be called, is a PI at a private investigation agency called Incredible Love. Of course you can imagine some of the calls they get thinking it's an escort service. Mo tracks down cheating spouses. On one of her investigations, she has to break into someone's car and the result is her getting stuck, head down, in the sunroof! Of course the owner of the car comes and finds her this way and that's where it all starts...

 

Ross Grant, a very handsome movie star who's been out of work for a while, is the owner of the car and Mo convinces him not press charges. From then on, the two of them get mixed up in a blackmail scheme that involves a Ross Grant impersonator (even though he's been out of work for a while, his character, a 007 type, is remembered very well! :)), the Russian mafia and a stripper along with a slew of other characters that all make this a great read!

 

Patricia Mason is an award winning author and once you read this book you will see why. Purchase it on Amazon!

 

                                            *****5 Stars BRAVO! A must read! Loved it!



Review of "Lay Death at Her Door" by Elizabeth Buhmann

From the Publisher: "Twenty years ago, Kate Cranbrook's eyewitness testimony sent the wrong man to prison for rape and murder. When new evidence exonerates him, Kate says that in the darkness and confusion, she must have mistaken her attacker's identity.

She is lying.

Kate would like nothing better than to turn her back on the past, but she is trapped in a stand-off with the real killer. When a body turns up on her doorstep, she resorts to desperate measures to free herself once and for all from a secret that is ruining her life."

My Review: I will start out by saying there were times I really enjoyed this book, and times I wanted to reach into the pages and ring Kate's neck. Now that I've said that, the story is unique and so are the characters. Kate is a woman in her 40's that still lives with her father, Miles Cranbrook, also known as Pop. Buhmann makes you think Kate is stuck living with him and you feel sorry for her as you read how nosey he is and how he has to know her every move. But as the story progressed, I found myself really hating Kate for the way she was treating her father, and others, and all the lies she was telling to everyone. And let me tell you, she loves telling some lies. There were times I couldn't keep up with what was true or false. Have I mentioned I didn't like how Kate treated others? Buhmann on more than one occasion described Kate as "beautiful' and Kate knew she was. All of her life she knew she turned men's heads. She knew what she wanted in life and she got it...no matter what it cost her.

She had people in her life that cared about her but she only saw them as a way of getting what she wanted. It was really hard to like this character. And she's the one you're supposed to be rooting for. Then later on in the story you feel sorry for her again when one of her close friends is murdered in her apartment! You start to think that Kate is cursed, bless her heart. She is determined to get to the bottom of it...or does she already know who did it?? It keeps you locked in.

This book was very intriguing and Buhmann did a great job at keeping your attention. I do wish it would have had more of a love story...I'm a sucker for those :)

All in all, I'm really glad I stuck it out because with all the lies and not knowing what was true or false, and the mystery of finding out who the real killer is, it does all come together and make sense in the end...and I have to admit it was one I did NOT see coming! Honestly, my jaw dropped and stayed that way for a couple of pages.

Having said all of that, overall I liked the book and I recommend it!!

              ****4 = COFFEE TALK! Wonderful book. I believe most others will like it.

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Review of "The Last Hybrid: Bloodline of Angels" by Lee Wilson

The Last Hybrid: Bloodline of Angels
(Book 1)

by Lee Wilson

From the Publisher: When Hannah Sawyer dropped out of college after losing her scholarship she spent five years weaning herself of alpha males and alcohol, but when she decides to return to finish her degree she finds those things rolled into one in the intoxicating blue eyes of fellow student Daniel Keith.

What she soon learns is that her newfound addiction to Daniel impairs her judgment beyond any mixed drink a frat boy could have handed her. She should have left when he cut his arm with a car key to show her his white blood. Or when he had a run-in with a dark angel on one of their dates. But Hannah stays, entranced by this man who remains a mystery to her.

Who or what is Daniel? And why does the small town of Spring Hill, Tennessee seem to summon his enemies? As romance lures Hannah further into a shadowy world most people never see, she realizes she's gotten herself in deeper than she knew possible. And this time there's no option of dropping out.

Never Buried

Never Buried

(Leigh Koslow Mystery Series Book 1)

by Edie Claire

From the Publisher: A young advertising executive finds her life in turmoil--she just lost her job, she may or may not have a boyfriend, and she's trying to help her cousin through a pregnancy.

If that weren't enough, she wakes up to find a strange man lying in her backyard hammock.

The fact that he is dead, and apparently has been embalmed for years, doesn't exactly help.

With lots of time on her hands and a knack for nosing around, the young woman finds herself in the middle of a classic murder mystery. But can she solve the riddle before the killer puts her six feet under?

Hello Readers!

Hi readers and authors!

We're going to get things going in a hurry here with reviews, author interviews and book giveaways.
I'm excited to get started and effective immediately I'll be accepting submissions to review. I prefer to get Kindle version of book for now but I'll be putting together a review policies page as soon as possible.

Happy reading!