Prayers have been answered!!!

My friend Rebecca was just told that she gets to go home...TODAY!!! She has been in the hospital since the day after Thanksgiving and on life support until last Monday. She was just moved to a regular room yesterday and was able to spend time with her oldest son yesterday, but still hadn't seen her younger two sons. By the grace of God she is continuing to get well and will be with all of her family, at home for Christmas. Thanks to everyone who said prayers for Rebecca and her family. Her doctors told her family early on there was really nothing else they could do for Rebecca, and it was up to their God to make her well.

Blogging and Internet Hiatus

I really haven't had much time to blog on my blog or my friend's blogs this week. Until tonight, I've only been on the internet during working hours and even then, mostly work related stuff. I've been able to catch up on some of my missed sleep from being at my sister's house for 4 nights by falling asleep before 8 the past two nights. Even managed to make 2 rum cakes for gifts before crashing each night. But, I've missed reading every one's blogs and talking to everyone. Hope to find time tomorrow to catch up on all my blogging after I finish all my errands. Tomorrow I'll go babysit for a bit in the morning, finish up my dad's Christmas shopping(no one would get gifts if I didn't shop for him), clean my house and finish up my laundry...what a great way to spend a vacation day.

On a very exciting note, my friend Rebecca is getting great reports from the doctors. She was able to be taken off all oxygen yesterday and had maintained excellent oxygen saturation levels. Her kidneys continue to improve and function better with each day. Thanks to everyone who has kept Rebecca in your prayers. I'm praying she will be home in time to spend Christmas with her 3 little boys next week.

I'm hoping to get my post up about Jennifer Lyon's Blood Magic tomorrow once my cleaning is finished. I can tell you now that I loved Blood Magic and have already started reading her next book, Soul Magic.

More Blazing Bedtime Stories

More Blazing Bedtime Stories is one of the latest in bedtime stories with a sexy twist from the Blaze line. From the back cover.~

Into the Woods by Julie Leto

Tatiana Starlingham is a frustrated fairy godmother. She grants sexy wishes for others-but all that hot loving is off-limits for her. Until she meets hunky Jack St. Cloud and finally has mind-blowing sex! But can Tatiana wish it into lasting forever?

Once Upon a Mattress by Leslie Kelly

Who’s afraid of the big bad werewolf? Not long-lost princess Penelope Mayfair…Because dark, sexy Lucas Wolf is giving her the best sex of her life! Unfortunately, she’s intended for another. But that’s not about to stop Lucas. After all everybody knows wolves mate for life…

Julie Leto and Leslie Kelly are two of my favorite authors and they both deliver with their latest stories from Blaze. Both Julie and Leslie give readers super-sexy bedtime stories. I feel like I would give too much away if I say much about the stories. I can say I loved the characters and really can't wait to visit the magical land of Elatyria in the future. Two fun and sexy winners by Julie Leto and Leslie Kelly.

Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods is the first book in her Blue Bloods series by Melissa De la Cruz. From the back cover.~

Schuyler Van Alen has never fit in at Duchesne, her prestigious New York City private school. She prefers baggy, vintage clothes to the Prada and pearls worn by her classmates. But when she turns fifteen, Schuyler’s life changes dramatically. The death of a popular schoolmate haunts her in unexpected ways. And strangest of all, Jack Force, the most popular boy in school, is showing a sudden interest in her.

Once an outcast, Schuyler is thrust into Manhattan’s most exclusive social circle. Its members are the powerful, the wealthy, and-as Schuyler soon discovers-the unhuman. They are Blue Bloods, an ancient group of vampires, and for centuries they’ve been invincible. Now something is preying on this elite group, and Schuyler wants to find out the truth. But is she the most vulnerable of them all?

I really enjoy reading YA books, and especially books about vampires. Some of my favorite series are the House of Night, Morganville Vampires, the Twilight saga, and the Vampire Academy. I would now add Blue Bloods to this list of series I love.

I loved Schuyler and her best friends Oliver and Dylan. I even liked the mean girl character Mimi Force, her new friend Bliss and Mimi's twin brother Jack. Just like in an other high school on earth, you have your various levels of clicks. At Duchesne, Mimi would be the queen bee of the school, while Schuyler and her friends are a little bit like misfits. While Mimi and Jack know they are among an elite group of vampires, Bliss and Schuyler are in the dark until they are asked to join a super secret society. When a member of the elite is found murdered, Schuyler and her friends start to look into the history of the Blue Bloods to find out if this has happened before. What follows brings new friendships to Schuyler's life, answers to come questions about her past, and more questions for her future and the future of her friends.

Melissa De la Cruz gives the readers a wonderful group of characters with a very strong story in Blue Bloods. I already have the next book in the series, Masquerade in my TBR pile, thanks to my niece loaning me her copy.

**Disclaimer** I bought Blue Bloods with my own money.

Prayer Request for Rebecca Hughes

I'm sending out huge prayer request for my friend Rebecca Williams Hughes. We have been friends since college. She is currently in ICU at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, TN. She had surgery on November 24 and was able to go home for Thanksgiving. However, she didn't feel right and they took her back to the hospital on Friday. The doctors realized she had a twisted bowel and they did another surgery, which went well. However, she got sick in recovery and aspirated in to her lungs. Her lungs are doing better right now, but her kidney function hasn't recovered yet. Rebecca is a wife and mother of 3 young boys. Below is a link to her Caring Bridge site and her family keeps it updated several times a day.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/rebeccawilliamshughes

Any and all prayers would be great.

Plum Pudding Murder

Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke is the latest in her Hannah Swensen Mystery series. From the inside cover flap.~

The yuletide season in Lake Eden, Minnesota, guarantees a white Christmas, delectable holiday goodies from Hannah Swensen’s bakery, The Cookie Jar-and murder. As a shadow hangs over her friends’ wedding, Hannah’s determined to cook a killer’s goose before anyone else gets burned…

The Cookie Jar’s busiest time of the year also happens to be the most wonderful time...for Christmas cookies, Hannah’s own special plum pudding-and romance! Holiday orders are high, and Hannah’s slated to provide dessert at the Reverend Knudsen’s upcoming nuptials. She’s busy as can be and loving it. She also gets a kick out of Larry Jaeger’s Crazy Elf Christmas Tree Lot, a kitschy carnival taking place smack-dab in the middle of the village green. Larry thinks he’s crazy like a fox with his wild business schemes, but this time, the entrepreneur may have bitten off more than he can chew. Rumor had it that Larry’s in the red-an idea that takes a sinister turn when Hannah discovers the man himself dead as a doornail in his own office…

It seems quite a few people would have like to fill Larry’s stocking with coal and then bash him with it-including his bitter ex-wife, his ex-partner’s daughter, a woman he was wooing, and the Crazy Elf Tree lot’s extremely exasperated investors…

Now with so many suspects to investigate and the twelve days of Christmas ticking away, Hannah’s running out of time to nab a murderous Scrooge who doesn’t want her to see the New Year…

I really like the Hannah Swensen Mystery series. Hannah is just your normal everyday woman, who runs her own business and solves murders in her free time with the help of her business partner Lisa, her sister Andrea, her mother, and Norman, one of her boyfriends. Her other boyfriend, Mike, works for the Sherriff’s department with Andrea’s husband Bill. Normally Hannah is the one to stumble across the dead bodies, but this time Norman is the first to spot the body. I like this series because I usually figure out the who-done-it right before Hannah and Plum Pudding Murder was on different. Another great thing about the Hannah Swensen series would be all the wonderful recipes that are included in every book. I’ve only tried a couple of the cookies, but they were wonderful. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes to read a light-hearted mystery.

**Disclaimer** I borrowed this book from the public library.

Shadow Kiss

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead is the third book in her popular Vampire Academy series. From the back cover.~

WHAT IF FOLLOWING HER HEART MEANS ROSE COULD LOSE HER BEST FRIEND FOREVER?

Rose Hathaway knows it is forbidden to love another guardian. Her best friend, Lissa-the last Dragomier princess-must always come first. Unfortunately, when it comes to gorgeous Dimitri Belikov, some rules are meant to be broken.

But since making her first Strigoi kills, Rose hasn’t been feeling right. Something dark has begun to grow in her mind, and ghostly shadows warn of a terrible evil drawing nearer to the Academy’s iron gates. An now that Lissa and Rose’s sworn enemy, Victor Daskov, is on trial for his freedom, tensions in the Moroi world are higher than ever.

Lying to Lissa about Dimitri is one thing, but suddenly there’s way more than friendship at stake. The immortal undead are on the prowl, and they want vengeance for the lives that Rose has stolen. In a heart-stopping battle to rival her worst nightmare, Rose will have to choose between life, love, and the two people who matter most…but will her choice mean that only one can survive?

I love the Vampire Academy series and Shadow Kiss is another winner in the series. Rose is hands-down my favorite character in the series. She is such a strong person, and will do anything to protect her friend Lissa, even give up the one guy she is totally in love with. Dimitri and Rose have been fighting their attraction for one another from the beginning. Both will be Lissa's guardians once Lissa and Rose graduate from the Academy and they must always put Lissa's welfare first. I really try not one to post spoilers, so I will only say that everything changes with Shadow Kiss. I can't wait to see how the choices made in Shadow Kiss will help each of the main characters grow and change.

Blood Promise is the next book in the Vampire Academy series and it was released at the end of August. Luckily, I already have it sitting on my TBR bookshelf.

**Disclaimer** I bought this book myself.