For the Love of Mollie

For the Love of Mollie is one of the latest novellas out for release by new author KT Grant. Below is information on the story from the author’s website.~

**Winner of Decadent Publishing's Novella Contest! For the Love of Mollie will be in the Relay For Life ‘Read For a Cure’ feature for August During August all of the publisher's profits will be donated to the American Cancer Society**

Synopsis: Mollie McGree is on a mission to seduce her best friend, the sexy masseuse Juan-Carlos. But she wants to lose a few extra pounds first. She joins a gym run by self-made millionaire and personal trainer, Conner Bean. Conner thinks Mollie doesn't need to lose any weight, and is perfect just the way she is. He plans to seduce the curvy Mollie by giving her his own special training sessions in passion and desire.

Soon Mollie is enjoying a no-holds-barred love affair with the vibrant and skilled Conner. But self-esteem issues on her part, as well as her unresolved feelings for Juan-Carlos, cause her to second guess Conner's motives. Conner will stop at nothing until he claims Mollie's heart for his own.

For the Love of Mollie was another super sexy story by KT Grant. Mollie is much like every woman in America and feels like she needs to lose some weight. She has had a crush on sexy masseuse Juan-Carlos for what seems like forever and believes the only reason he isn’t interested in her is because she needs to lose weight. On her first day of working out at her new gym, owned by her best friend Suzy’s brother, she meets super sexy trainer Conner Bean, who also happens to be Suzy’s cousin. Conner is immediately attracted to Mollie, and thinks she is perfect just as she is, but decides he will be her personal trainer so he can convince her how perfect she is in his eyes. However, Conner isn’t only interested in working out with Mollie in the gym…he wants her in his bed too. The chemistry between Conner and Mollie is off the charts from their very first kiss and only got hotter as they spent more and more time together.

I really loved seeing Mollie change and become more confident as this story progressed. She was always a strong and beautiful woman, but with Conner’s help she was able to see herself as others did. Grant once again tells a beautiful story filled with humor and passion. KT Grant’s next story currently out for release is The Princess’s Bride, which is currently available for download from Ravenous Romance and next up on my ebook download list.

Hell Week...Diet Style

According to our fearless leader, Amy, the second week into the 6 Weeks to Skinny Jeans diet is called Hell Week. The first week you are so pumped up to give this diet a try by eating the right foods and exercising each day. I have to say that losing 6 pounds in the first week (from my weigh in with Amy on 8/14 to my weigh in at home on 8/23) really made me happy. Woohoo for me! I finally got off the plateau I'd been living on for the last 2 months.

Then week 2 came along. I'm sticking to this low carb 1,500 calorie diet like no body's business. In fact, I'm usually under my calories for the day no matter how much food I put into my body each day. I must say it takes a ton of veggies to equal any real calories if you aren't putting crap on the veggies when you fix them. My biggest challenge right now is to get all my calories in each day, which looks even worse on the days I run. Seems I burn at least 300 calories with each run, so on those days I only net out about 800-900 calories. With this plan, you don't actually get to net out your calories, but www.myfitnesspal.com automatically does it, so I see it on my run days. Luckily, I found out last week we could in fact have sugar free chocolate pudding, so I can get my chocolate fix each day and even add a few more calories in for the day (60 calories per serving).

Exercising has been a bit of a challenge for me. Not my running, as I have it set up on a schedule and I stick to it each day. Doing the 3 sets of exercises Amy has set up for the book is sometimes hard. As much as I hate them, I do them, but not sure I have all the positions right. Was hoping to get some pointers at our group exercise this week, but Amy was sick and it was canceled. The moves are available on the Internet, but much like any other group aerobics class, I need to see it in person to really get it sometimes. We will meet this Tuesday, so I'll be ready with questions and my papers to take notes. Will say I can feel it in my legs and butt after each exercise period.

Going through this with my friends is also extremely helpful. I know there is always at least one person, if not 3 I can talk to when I want something that isn't allowed. I really haven't had a huge urge to cheat on this diet. I do miss chips and guacamole once a week, but have found I can eat guacamole on a salad and skip the chips and I'm just as happy. Overall, this diet is getting easier, but I really think it is more about my attitude to succeed than anything else.

Passion Unleashed

Passion Unleashed by Larissa Ione is the third book in her popular Demonica series. From the back cover.~

Forbidden Temptations

Serena Kelley is an archaeologist and treasure hunter-and a woman with a secret. Since she was seven, she’s been the keeper of a powerful charm that grants her health and immortality…as long as she stays a virgin. But Serena isn’t all that innocent. And when a dangerously handsome stranger brings her to the brink of ecstasy, she wonders if she’s finally met the one man she cannot resist.

Fatal Desires

Wraith is a Seminus demon with a death wish. But when an old enemy poisons him, he must find Serena and persuade her to give him the only known antidote in the universe-her charm. Yet, as she begins to surrender to his seductions and Wraith senses the sure is within his grasp, he realizes a horrible truth: He’s falling for the woman whose life he must take in order to save his own life.

I was late getting to this series, but I’m so glad I found it, as it is one of my favorite series out right now. I’ve had a soft spot for Wraith since the first book and was so happy to get to read his story. He is part vampire and part Seminus demon, but hates the vampire side of himself because of the abuse from his mother and her people. Serena Kelley pretty much has no fear, since she knows she can’t be hurt due to her charm. However, she starts to suffer small injuries and realizes something is not right with her charm anymore. Upon meeting Wraith, who she believes is actually someone else, she knows her charm is in danger. She has never been so attracted to anyone and isn’t sure she can continue to fight her attraction to Wraith. Wraith, who has never thought of anyone but himself and his brothers, realizes he has real feelings for Serena. Thinking of her before himself, he is willing to die so she can live, until he discovers the poison that is killing him could eventually kill his brothers too.

I loved watching Wraith fall and start thinking of someone other than himself. He had been through so much with the torture him mother and her followers inflicted on him, he had every right to be selfish and think of himself first. He does love his brothers, but as I read the series, I knew it would take a super special woman to win his heart. Serena, with all her strength, is the perfect woman for Wraith.

Ecstasy Unveiled is the next book in this series and I currently have it in my TBR pile. Sin Undone, which release date is 8/24/10, is the final book in this series. I’ve held off reading Ecstasy Unveiled until I have Sin Undone in my hands, so I can read the final two books back to back.

6 week journey to skinny jeans

So a few of my friends were getting ready to participate in a 6-week fitness plan called 6 Weeks to Skinny Jeans, and asked me to join them in this fitness/weight loss plan. I’ve been on Weight Watchers for the past year and have hit a plateau over the past few weeks, so I said I would do it. Now they had each been getting emails about the plan for some time, and I was going in blind. Imagine my surprise when we were talking about it a couple of days before everything starts and I find out for the 6 weeks of the plan I can have no alcohol or chocolate and must stick to a 1,500 calorie a day diet, which totally limits my carbs. If that isn’t enough, you also are expected to do workouts everyday, in addition to the running I’m already doing most days. I still agreed to do this, not only for myself, but as a way to support my friends as they went on this journey. We had out last “no carb left behind” dinner on Saturday night (everyone else got to continue with carbs on Sunday, but I had a colonoscopy on Monday, so no food for me on Sunday) and our fitness journey began on Monday, August 16.

I think my body is still trying to adjust to a reduced carb diet. I’m pretty lucky that I love so many veggies listed on this plan. However, it still is a challenge to come up with 3 meals and 3 snacks a day and keep things different each day. So far I’ve pretty much had to stick with eggs for breakfast each day, but I’m trying to put them with something different each day. Lunch has been spinach salads with either fish or chicken, dinner has been another salad with either fish or chicken, and my snacks have been almonds and sugar free jello or sugar free pudding made from part skim ricotta cheese. Now I’m only on day 3 and I’m not alone in looking for new snack ideas and meal ideas. Lucky for my friends and me, Amy Cotta (www.amycotta.com) is really answering our call with suggestions. Since this is her fitness/weight loss plan, she has so many great recipes and tips to get us through this program.

As I mentioned earlier, we are also expected to do a different workout routine each day, in addition to our regular cardio. Amy is working out with us only 1 day a week each week of the plan. Making this plan work is all on each of us, just as it would be if we went out and bought her book or exercise video. Last night we had our first group workout and all I can say, my butt is still killing me. I think I’ve finally found the exercises to make my butt smaller (Woohoo!), and I’ll be the first to admit she totally puts out a kick-ass workout. The only thing that made it any easier, and even a little fun, was having 2 of my friends with me as Amy kicked our butts. There are 3 different workouts in Amy’s plan and I’ll do the first one on my own tonight (wasn’t allowed to exercise at all on Monday), once I run 2-3 miles after work. I know without even looking at the workout I will be so sore tomorrow.

Since I’ve been on Weight Watchers, I’ve lost 45 pounds and given away all of “fat clothes” as they became too big. I gave all my skinny clothes to my sister a few years ago when she lost a bunch of weight, so I don’t really have any skinny jeans left in my house, with the exception of a pair of size 4 Lucky Jeans I could wear about 7-8 years ago. Now, I’m not crazy enough to believe I will be skinny enough to fit into those size 4 jeans after 6 weeks (it wouldn’t be healthy for me to drop that much weight that fast), but I am hoping this fitness/weight loss plan kicks me off the plateau I’ve been living on for the past couple of months.

Having issues with blogger

So I seem to be having issues with blogger right now. I have a great post all ready to go about the new fitness/weight loss challenge I'm currently doing, but can't get blogger to let me paste the post so I can publish it. Hopefully, when I get home from work, I can get it to work on my home computer. I've now emailed the post to my house and hope to get it posted tonight. I also need to get post up about the last two books I read. Plan on getting at least one up tonight after my workout and dinner.

Reading Slump in July

I just finished reading Larissa Ione's Passion Unleashed. I try to update my spreadsheet of books read as I finish reading each book (yes I have to keep a spreadsheet to keep up with my books each year...I know I'm a geek). Upon updating said spreadsheet, I realized I only managed to read 3 books total in July. My reads in July were the following books:

Burned

Dead, Undead or Somewhere in Between

Friday Night Bites

I did managed to read a few stories, that are not yet published, but overall I hit a major reading slump in the month of July. My week at RWA didn't help in adding to my reading list for the month. I had a wonderful time at RWA, but didn't find any spare time to read while I was there. In fact, if I found any spare time, I usually grabbed a power nap to help me get through the rest of the day.

I hope to find time to post a longer post on my first RWA experience over the weekend. I can only say at this point, I've almost caught up on my sleep and still need to put away my suitcases and clean laundry.