In Secretly by Debra Kayn, Angie Swanson’s life is at it’s worst. She was once a popular masseuse in Seattle working for an exclusive spa. But at the crucial point, a less knowledgeable or worthy masseuse was given the promotion that should have been hers. Then the spa closed down leaving her without a job. Now she is back in Deadhorse, Oregon living with her brother Drew, working with him at his gas station while she tries to find a way back to Seattle.

 

When Angie sees Gary Satchel waiting at the station, she knows this is her chance to get back to Seattle. If she can just convince him to allow her to live with him for a couple of weeks while she finds a job and a new apartment, she will be able to fulfill her dreams. But convincing Gary will not be easy. Read More...

1. Getting a character-crush on a random stranger I keep glimpsing waiting for the same bus in the same too-big red sweatshirt (figuring out a fictional life for her)

 

2. Looking up blood's boiling point.

Traditional advice is to use the official app stores to avoid mobile malware – but a Spanish security firm has discovered four apps available via Google Play that scam their users into covertly subscribing to premium SMS services and stealing money through their phone bills.

 

Luis Corrons, technical Director of Panda Security's PandaLabs research arm, blogged about the discovery yesterday. His team had found four particular apps (on dieting, baking, exercise and hairstyling) that all use a similar process to scam their users. The basic methodology is to trick the user into accepting terms and conditions well beyond those expected.

 

Using the diet app as an example, Corrons shows that users are presented with an invitation to view one of the diets. Clicking 'Enter' pops up a small window that asks the user to accept the app's terms of service – but those terms are separated from the pop-up, greyed out, and in tiny, unreadable text. They actually grant the app permission to subscribe the device to an external service.

 

Of course, it's not as simple as that. Firstly, the app 'steals' the user's phone number from WhatsApp (a popular app that requires the user's number and is statistically quite likely to be installed). It then covertly subscribes the user to a premium SMS service, waits for the confirmatory request from the service, intercepts it and responds in the affirmative – all without any notification to the user. The user eventually gets presented with a bill 'hidden' in the mobile phone charge for a service he didn't know he was using.

 

This type of scam is a growing problem. "I know that lots of people only ever give their bill a cursory glance or don’t even bother looking if it stays under a certain amount. I manage all the bills in our house after I discovered my missus had being paying insurance and tech support on a phone she hadn’t used for 5 years," a PandaLabs spokesperson told Infosecurity.

 

"Whether the cyber criminals choose to use the app as often as possible to rack-up their income knowing they will get caught quickly or the under-the-radar method [small amounts from a lot of victims] where they will try to go unnoticed depends the criminal’s choice," Corrons told Infosecurity.

 

He did some quick arithmetic on a projected volume of anything up to 1.2 million downloads of the four apps. "They charge a lot of money for premium SMS services, if we make a conservative estimate of $20 charged by terminal, we are talking of a huge scam that could be somewhere between 6 and 24 million dollars!" And this, of course, is just for the four apps that he found.

 

These particular apps were found in the Spanish Google Play. They contravene Google's new terms and conditions for Play, which insist on a single purpose and clear terms. How Google intends to enforce those terms remains to be seen; but Corrons confirmed to Infosecurity that these four have now been removed from Play.

 

My favorite among Nora Roberts' very uneven Chesapeake Bay "trilogy." (I liked book 1, Sea Swept, but not as well as this; I did not like book 3, Inner Harbor, much at all, and I really hated book 4, Chesapeake Blue.) This book focuses on Ethan, the second adopted Quinn brother and the one with the most tortured past. He has been in love with Grace Monroe since they were children, but because of his tortured past, he feels tainted and believes she deserves better. (The pining-for-years-in-secret trope is one of my favorites: it's so emotionally satisfying when all that frustrated yearning explodes into passion.)

Secretly Smitten by Colleen Coble, Kristin Billerbeck, Denise Hunter, Diann Hunt
Each of the authors have a few chapters that pick up where the last chapter left off-with the same characters and story line.
Between the lines by Colleen Cable
Smitten, VT romantic touristy town.
At Natalie's baby shower the little girl playing in the attic finds her grandmothers beau dog tags and she says he died in the war so she married another man.
The man used to live in Ryans house so Tess Thomas asks if she can help him clean out the attic-any news on David Hutchins, the owner of the dog tags. He takes a liking to her and enjoys having her around him and his daughter. He's a single dad.
She runs the local bookstore and he and Sophia read a lot. Besides finding the clues about David the whole community is fixing up the train station in hopes they can get the trains to stop to boost their business. Love hearing all the handiwork that goes into repairing everything.
Although there is a lot going on it's easy to keep track of the characters and their professions and their relationships.
Easy going folks but there are obstacles to overcome.
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Make Me a Match by Kristin Billerbeck
This section is mostly about Zoey Thomas and her new business. William Singer is the one who must adhere to rules and regulations and he finds fault with Zoe's renovations.
She butts heads with him as she wants to cook for the shut-ins but he finds exposed wiring that is against the code for the building.
She misunderstandings when the fire chief puts a halt to her meeting as there are too many people in one room...
Faith in God helps her get through. The sisters also continue to follow the leads to David. Sometimes the lesson from God is the gift, what a great phrase!
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Knit One, Love Two by Diann Hunt
Love the name of this as I do knit. Anna Thomas runs the local yarn store and Mrs. Connors meets with others there and knits.
Michael, works at a ski lodge, has shown up to pick up his mother after the meeting-he's just back from the Marines and they go to the same church.
She's divorced from Joe and she's busy in her daughter's life's.
She helps do errands for him when he injures his leg skiing. He shares that he's not been in contact with his son but has been trying to reach him. She shares about how she might want to raise sheep and be able to spin the yarn-for her store.
Another mystery: someone buys things for single mothers with children and nobody knows who it is...
Again misunderstandings take hold...
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Love Blooms by Denise Hunter
Claire Thomas runs the local nursery and loves planting things. The rest of her family had their loves and she has her plants.
Ethan Forest she had found in her barn where she stored the tools. He was there to get out of the rain and to answer her ad for work.
After she faints at work and he drives her home the rest of the family takes over with their remedies to get her better. It's the first long holiday weekend of the summer and the nursery is busy and her boss is back and she panics as she's not been there for several days.
Ethan had taken over and everything was in perfect order, much to her surprise.
It's been only a few weeks since the local chess player broke off with her saying she was boring...Ethan shared the family Sunday dinner and they get a chance to talk about their pasts.
She learns about the ministry he and Luke were going to go after the war...
He leaves before the centennial ceremonies and she realizes she is the only one alone, the others alone had had loves for years. she hadn't.
Love how everything is wound together at the ceremonies...
I received this book from Ocean State Libraries E-Zone