Holiday Baking: Favorite Quick and Easy Sweet Treat Recipes
Short intro and then the recipes.
Each recipe includes: servings, prep and cook times, ingredient list and very detailed instructions on how to make them.
No nutritional information and you might be able to substitute some ingredients for a healthier option.
Kiss sugar cookie would probably be the ones I make this year from this book.
Candy and fudge sections also. Other works by the author are highlighted at the end along with helpful charts.

3,5 stars

I have never read BDSM before. No dark erotica. Only fluffy, HEA stuff. This is an attempt to evade my comfort zone and read the reportedly amazing series that is "The Original Sinners".

Since I didn't want to get in over my head, I decided to read one of Tiffany Reisz's short stories to see if I would be able to handle "The Siren".

I have to say, I was expecting worse. There were no pears of anguish or anything resembling medieval torture devices. It was surprisingly normal. A little whipping and restraining. Nothing too shocking. This was my idea of light-BDSM, but somehow I thought this would be more hardcore. In the actual books there will be those kinds of situations, I suppose.

So far, I am liking Nora very much. We get the notion that her Dominatrix lifestyle isn't about personal satisfaction, but in giving it to others in exchange for heavy sums of money. Nora is exhausted. And Kingsley will give her her vacation, if she ventures into their rival BDSM club and manages to gather intel about the Dame. However, to get to this elusive woman no one has ever seen or talked to, Nora, armed with her red riding crop, must face the Big Brad Wolfe...

It's decided, I'm giving "The Siren" a go. I'm intrigued.

4 stars

Meet Antoine.

Yes, you are looking at my very first Kindle. Sexy, isn't he?

Anyway, this was the first full-length book ever read on Antoine. I don't know what he thought about the experience. I liked it. Thank you, Gods of technology (and my family) for this gift.

"One Tiny Lie" induced lots of eye-rolling in the beginning. Livie is sexually repressed alright. First kiss at eighteen? I was starting to think this would be an awful journey of self-discovery between good-girl and bad-boy.

But K.A. Tucker surprised me. As Livie (or Irish) would say, she is a virgin whore. During her first college party, she gets beyond drunk, gets a tattoo, spends the entire time munching on the hottest guy in Princeton's handsome face and feasting on his sculpted, tattooed body... And wakes up in only her panties, while the Jell-O thief sleeps naked a few feet away.

Perfect Livie has lots of trouble coping with her newly-found savageness and the life-plan she's never before questioned. Ashton isn't much help, what with the flashes she keeps getting of their partially-forgotten partying streak. Also, he seems to be an assumed man-whore, whose girlfriend lives miles away, unsuspecting of his behaviour.

Of course, there are plenty more layers to Ashton that what people know of him. And Livie is the one unraveling them, piece by piece. Or chunk by chunk. Honestly, this book felt too short. Everything was rushed. Ashton and Livie could've had a little more time to develop their relationship properly.

That said, I have to mention my favourite character in this series: Dr. Stayner! He's still hanging around the Cleary family, shocking everyone and helping them deal with their issues, cost-free. He's amazing, really.

Overall, this was a good follow-up to "Ten Tiny Breaths". I've been snooping around and the next book's Cain's. That should be good.

4 stars

If you've read "On Dublin Street", then you are/were probably just as curious as I was about Ellie and Adam. The first installment of this series kept Ellie and Adam's relationship on the background, and I couldn't help thinking about what might be happening exactly between the two of them. I wanted details! Lots of details.

I'm not sure I got all of the details I needed. I wondered how Samantha Young was going to put all of those years of attraction and forbidden love in just one hundred pages. I wanted a full book, dammit! I wanted to know what Adam was thinking during those last months.

What I received was a trip down memory lane. Together and happy, their issues solved, Ellie and Adam are casually sorting through her diaries and reliving all of their past dramas and mistakes. It was slightly frustrating, to see how they'd acted throughout the years, all because Adam was afraid of losing Braden's confidence. God knows how I adore a her-big-brother's-my-bestfriend complex, but still.

I still think a full-length novel would have been a better choice, considering the importance of Adam and Ellie's relationship. They're the protagonists' best friends. I really wanted to be inside Adam's mind. Damn. I struggled with that too during "On Dublin Street". The lack of a male POV seems to be a designated rule. Let's see if it sticks for the next books as well.

4 stars

What an amazing break from all of the angsty reads. Not that this book was all pink and fluffy. It wasn't. But there were no nonsense fights and fabricated drama. The issues the main couple faced actually felt real and believable! Lots of points for that.

Jocelyn Butler is fucked up. Her best friend of four years knows nothing about her. She represses memories of her painful past all the time. She's reluctant to open her heart to people.

But when she moves to Dublin Street with Ellie Carmichael and meets her brother, Braden, Joss finds herself facing a whirlwind of emotions. She becomes emotionally attached to Ellie and Braden, to their family, begins to reveal a little bit more of herself gradually. Braden, who started out as a persistent suitor whom she had an unbelievably huge attraction to, ended up being her friend with benefits and then her boyfriend.

Joss and Braden make an amazing couple. Almost angst-free. Braden's got that extremely hot caveman thing going on and Joss challenges him. They keep each other grounded.

However, when an unexpected situation hits them both, Joss will finally realise her involvement in the Carmichaels' lives. The question is, will she be able to cope? Can she find the strength to fight her inner demons and give herself completely to Braden? Answers can be found in book. Ha.