Excellent Book Recommendation: Enslave

This book, entitled Enslave: The Taming of the Beast, is the third book in a trilogy by Cathy Yardley for her Avon Red series.  Enslave does for me what Twilight did for all the teenie boppers when it came out some years ago.  Dominic and Nadia are my Edward and Bella.

I sat today and just read the book.  I am trying to get on a better reading track and generally, it takes me forever to read a book.  I read the Twilight series, but I started in late January and finished the fourth book at the end of July.  It's not even necessarily that I'm a slow reader, although I am, but my habit is not to get swept up in a book, but moreso to read whenever the mood genuinely strikes me, which, when put up against The Maury Show or my Gilmore Girls DVDs, it rarely does.

The first book in the series is Crave: the Seduction of Snow White.  Fiancé and I were at B&N back in August when I spotted Crave.  I am very interested in folklore, urban legends, pop culture, and the like.  And so, in a terrible nerd fashion of such things, I thought that the book literally picked the Disney classic apart with its dark themes and cool stuff like that.  I didn't even bother reading the back jacket, I just bought it.  The book was on clearance, the section I always look at when I visit B&N.  I got home with it and several days later began to read it.  I quickly realized that the book was an example of what is called literotica.  Not that I minded that, it just wasn't what I thought it was.  It took me a long time to read the book.  I took it to work for a long time and read it during the dead hours behind the desk.  I finished it at work and it satisfied me.  It definitely wasn't the best book I ever read, and I wouldn't even call it a page-turner, but I thought it was sweet and it had a happy ending, so I felt like my purchase didn't go to waste.

I then found out that there were more.  Yardley's trilogy features classic fairy tales with heroines, mostly comparable to Disney classic princesses, told in a modern setting with lots of sex.  So I looked up the series and found Ravish: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty, which is the second book of the trilogy.  Ravish read a little faster, but I again didn't think this would be my favorite.  But, also again, I appreciated the story.  I love how Yardley puts the heroines in a modern setting and somehow manages to put all the components of the original story into her books.  But then came the third book.

Enslave is definitely my favorite.  I am in love with Dominic Luder, the way most girls are/were in love with Edward Cullen.  Watching him develop throughout the story made me smile all day.  If you have an entire day to dedicate to reading a book, you would be well off to pick this one.  Particularly if you've read the first two and have the comparison.

My biggest gripe:  too much sex.  While I realize these books are meant for the sex scenes, I would have appreciated a little less of it, particularly in the second book.  I got to the point where I was literally skipping whole pages to avoid the sex scenes and just finish the book.  As I previously stated, Yardley's actual plots are amazing.  If these three books had no sex in them at all, or at least if sex wasn't the main component for them, I would push them to my chest and smile out the window!  Unfortunately, the first book isn't like that.  The first book might as well be a manual.  That's how much sex is in it.  Too much sex and too much of the same word usage.  You'll quickly discover that Yardley, despite being a great author and the keeper of a great imagination, doesn't know how to use a thesaurus (this is my second biggest gripe). She begins using the exact same word several times in a chapter.  It's tiring.  The second book is better, not so much sex, but still a lot.  But the third book seems to focus moreso on the plot and character development rather than the sex, which in my humble opinion, makes it SO much better!

I got up at 8:30 this morning, which is unusual for me on a Sunday, and made coffee.  I had been trying to finish Enslave for a little while, and had been stuck at page 14 for the month of October, since the mood didn't strike me to read it.  Well this morning, I took the book from my nightstand and proceeded to the broken glider rocker in our living room, my favorite place to read.  I sat down and two hours and two cups of coffee later, had already read 100 pages.  It became addicting.  I had to find out what happened next.  And so, in 10 hours, I read the whole book.  When I got up to go to the bathroom, the book came, too.  It was fantastic to read about them falling in love despite great odds.  Sure, Romeo and Juliet did it, and Edward and Bella did it, and Noah and Allie did it, but it just never gets old.  Much like in other stories, at the beginning you are scared of Dominic and he is the bad guy, but by the end you're rooting for him.  Plus, Enslave, as indicated on the Web site, it written in reference to the Disney movie, whereas the others two are written in comparison to the original tales.  Had this book been minus a few lesbian love scenes that I skipped, it would have been perfect.

Nevertheless, of the few I've read this year, and certainly out of this trilogy, Enslave is a great read and a sweet love story.

Mr. & Mrs. Roberts

I make videos in my spare time.  (As if one has such a luxury anymore!)

I really enjoy doing it; I wish I could make a profession out of it.  I've made a couple of them, but the most recent one I've made is the one below.  It took about a week to make, and most of the last three days was spent editing the finished work.

Mr. & Mrs. Roberts on their wedding day <3

One of my best friends, Lee, married his college sweetheart, Ashley, a year ago, and I made them a video of their wedding to commemorate the occasion.

You can view the video here.

I am sending it to them today; their anniversary is Sunday.  I hope they like it!

10.10.10 -- Luckiest Day?

According to this site, yesterday was an incredibly lucky day, which, other than the awesome date choice, caused a lot of couples to tie the knot.

But after reading this article, I began wondering if anything particularly lucky happened to me yesterday, since numerologists have pegged yesterday's date as the luckiest day of the freaking century.

Here's what I did yesterday:

• woke up early with Justin since we went to bed so early the night before together (we got up around 9, when we usually sleep in on Sundays).
• made breakfast, including eggs, bacon (which tested and proved positive to the accuracy of the smoke alarm), toast and milk.
• after breakfast, and after airing out the kitchen and living room, Justin and I hung out with each other; I watched television and he did stuff on the Internet.  We didn't go anywhere, not even to the grocery store like every Sunday, until 4:30 when we got "lunch" from Subway. (I didn't have to do dishes!)
• he helped me wash the futon cover and put it back on the foam.  That was an adventure.
• in the evening, we watched "Undercover Boss" together on the futon.  The show was put back by an hour due to a football game, and Justin sat and watched TV with me for the hour until the show came on, something that just never happens.
• we didn't fight.  We didn't talk about wedding stuff or watch movies because of a deal or take a nap.  We were just able to be together, and even though we weren't right next to each other all day, we were able to enjoy each others' presence.

I'd call that pretty lucky! :)

Why I Love Him (One Reason)

For those who don't know, I am getting married in a little over a month and the man I am marrying is the same man I've been with for the last 7 years.  You can read about our story here.

Justin plays World of Warcraft, and has literally played the entire time we've been together.  He asked me to be his girlfriend on a Friday and I think WoW came out the following Tuesday or something.

Over the years, it has sometimes been very frustrating for him to be so wrapped up in what I call a stupid game.  Justin takes his position, which is guild leader, very seriously, and this has a habit of taking its toll.

Here's my point of view: as of right now, I'm jobless.  I am at home all day alone with only my cell phone and our basic cable to keep me company, cleaning the apartment and doing my homemaker chores.  I take him and pick him up from work due to the lack of parking where he works.  I fix his lunch and his dinner, as well as his coffee and I do all the dishes afterward.  I figure the least I can ask of him is to spend some time with me when he gets home from work.  Instead, he gets on WoW almost immediately upon getting the door.  This upsets me on a regular basis because I feel like he blows me off for something stupid like WoW.  He doesn't ever tell his guildies that he'll see what he can do about raiding with them, he tells me that he'll see what he can do about hanging out with me because he's "supposed to" be raiding that night.  It's incredibly angering after a while.

BUT!

This particular blog post is not to bash him, nor is it a rant session.  This post is to give the silver lining that I often tend to forget: he's passionate about something.  Justin doesn't watch sports, he doesn't have Poker Night every Friday with the guys and he doesn't constantly give his gender excuses for doing stupid things because he's a man.  He makes time for something he feels absolutely passionate about.  He doesn't come home from work and demand a beer and the television remote control.  He doesn't demand alone time because he had to work that day and I didn't.  He never makes light of what I do in the apartment, he doesn't care where I drive in his car while he's a work, and he always, always thanks me for every meal I make.  He tells me everyday, at least once, that he loves me and that I'm beautiful.

So I guess that I'd rather have a sweet partner than a demanding husband.  I love that he's passionate about what he does and that he feels like he's knowledgeable enough to be in charge of something, even if it's a guild in WoW.  Everyone deserves to feel that way.

I love his for his faults as well as his accomplishments.  And I suppose WoW fits both of those bills.