The best childhood memory is considered to be playing in the dirt. In fact some of us had eaten dirt or mud in our childhood. Even research shows that it is very good for the health of a child to play in dirt. Doctor Ryan Harvey from House Call Doctor explains”Without exposure to everyday germs, which can be found in mud, children miss out on building a stronger, more robust immunity to sickness”. The dirt can even strengthen young immune systems. Here are some reasons that you should let your child play in dirt.

Read more: latest health and fitness updates

Indecent Werewolf Exposure - Eve Langlai...

I am not the target audience of this book. I wouldn't have gotten it if it weren't for a) I read the author and b) it was free.

Beyond my not caring for menage, the issues I had with it were... it's in first person. I used to be a lot more ok with first person than I am now but I came to realize I dislike being in the heads of morons, or in this case, a defense attorney. Because really, who wants to know the unprofessional thoughts going through her head while she's interviewing a prospective client...ot the state of her pieces parts during said interview.

The second was the best friend who seemed to be more invested in her sex life than she was.

The third was the mom who, in spite of the h's protests, was way too interested in giving details on HER sex life.

Fourth was everyone overriding her protests that she didn't want to be in a threesome. EVERYone. Mom, bestie, of course the two dickheads who had a vested interest. As for those, I was strangely more ok with the vampire than the werewolf, mostly because he wasn't nearly so pushy. The werewolf mostly just irritated me by acting like an overgrown frat boy.

And finally, what kind of ending was that?! We get all the details of the courtship but when she's finally accepted that they'll both be in her life, it's more like a custodial arrangement where one gets her one day or something, which sounds just sucky to me. One assumes that eventually they're all just one big happy family but...?

I guess I'm not having much luck with romantic suspense this week.  I DNFed the last one and this one... well, it was just alright.  Nothing exciting really.  Definitely not enough to make me overlook the things that bugged me.

And what were those things?  Well, for one, I was getting a whiff of the misogyny that so turned me off the previous book. While the hero, Reed, did his best to be respectful and look for consent etcetera, his inner thoughts were just a tad too leery for me to be totally comfortable.  When it's the bad guy, it doesn't bother me, but in the hero?  Nope.

Then there was the instalove.  I didn't buy it. 

There was also a scene set in a Wiccan shop that was run by a woman who the author described as 60-ish.  You would have thought this woman was a doddering old fool, just because of her age. I'm here to tell you, (at 62), that we are nowhere near as ready for the home as this woman was depicted.  And maybe I could have glossed over it, but the heroine came across as rather judgmental and mean in her thoughts about the woman.  It was a small thing, but it really irritated me.

And then we came to the end.  I like my thrillers to come to a conclusion. This did not. All of a sudden, the people in danger were rescued, the bad guy got away, the MCs declared their love for each other and decided to move away.  Oh yeah, the bad guy got away.  It was totally unsatisfying. I went online and discovered that book two in the series concerns the brother of the heroine taking up the chase for the bad guy. I have it in my TBR, but honestly?  I'm not that anxious to read it. 

Sometimes it's the little things that have the most impact. For a single father in need of some adult contact and wallflower content with staying in the shadows, a tiny spark quickly turns into a very big deal. Can he convince her to take a chance on him? Resolution: Exposure is a sweet story that for me ended far too soon.

Midnight Exposure

by Melinda Leigh
Book 1 of Midnight

This book would have been more interesting without all the romantic angst, which, when the conclusion rolls around, seemed awfully moot, as none of the misunderstandings really affected anyone's feelings.  There was instalust, which quickly became instalove, and a couple who are unwilling to talk to each other, even though they are willing to sleep with each other, and think that they're in love.

At the very least our heroine wasn't TSTL, but that's little consolation for the fact that a whole bunch of other stuff in the book bugs the crap out of me.  Not least of all was the way too predictable murder mystery / crime thriller.  I most definitely saw the killer's identity from the beginning.

As I have a predisposition to give second chances to an author who didn't thoroughly annoy me--because this book was less frustrating than it was just formulaic and predictable--I will probably move onto the next book and see how that one works out.

Otherwise, pending my decision to continue or drop this series, I'll have to move onto my backup series for the Can You Read a Series in a Month? Challenge for this month.

Meanwhile, this book was also read for the 24 Festive Tasks, Door 18: Winter Solstice / Yuletide:
'Read any book that takes place in December; OR with ice or snow on the cover; OR that revolves around the (summer or winter) equinox; OR a collection of poetry by Hafez'.

This book takes place in December.

I'll come back and add the Door's graphic when it is officially revealed!