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I’ve officially been at my new job for a full month and have spent the entire time training. It’s been interesting, as it’s felt like I’ve been at school for a month instead of actually working. There have been homework assignments, presentations, and demonstrations of knowledge. I’ll be curious to see what happens once I get into actually working tasks/issues. But so far it’s been non-stop learning. I finished off the month by giving a demonstration of what I had learned thus far and will have several more of these next month. I think it went pretty well, and I found it interesting how to go into the presentation, as it was different from how I gave training in the past.
Also, if you haven’t noticed I’ve been trying to be good about posting something at least every other day here on my blog. It’s something I wanted to get into the habit of again. Not that I ever really stopped blogging, but I did lessen the number of posts I did. I had no regular schedule and for some months I only posted like six times. So, it feels like I’m getting back into blogging after a long break. We’ll see if I can keep it up. I know a lot of the posts are going to be book reviews considering the number of books I read every month. Though there’s still going to be a fair amount that are just going to be mini-reviews in these monthly round-ups.
Another thing that happened in June was Pixie got sick for a hot minute due to my mom taking her for a walk in the woods before I could put her tick prevention stuff on her. I’ve never really had a dog react badly to them, they were always just annoying to deal with. But this one seriously messed with Pixie’s GI track, so we had to switch her to a bland food diet for a like a week (which wiped out all the meat I had in my small freezer). Not to mention, I didn’t find the stupid tick until several days of this had passed. And by that point, the thing was massive. I normally notice everything on Pixie. Literally, my mom makes jokes to me about it. There’s a singular white fur on my dog’s back that no one would really notice, and I noticed it immediately when my mom cut it off as a joke. But a tick near my dog’s ear? Nope, failed to notice it even when it’s very clear in pictures that I sent to others. She’s fine now but that was a “fun” experience to have to deal with.
I included a picture, so apologies if that sort of thing freaks you out. But let’s play the fun little game called “Spot the tick”, can you spot it faster than I could? Note: that photo was taken on day five (I’m guessing she got the thing on Sunday and I didn’t have her back until Monday night), and I found it on day six when she was eating breakfast. She could’ve gotten it on another day, but she only went on walks in residential areas after that away from tall grass or woodlands, so I highly doubt she got it on any other day but on that Sunday when she went with my mom. You can click on the picture to make it bigger too.
Twitch/Gaming
This month I got to finish several games over on my Twitch channel. Honestly, I’m surprised by the fact that I was able to finish some of these games this month as I didn’t think I would be done with them any time soon. I.e. Skyrim, but I did pretty much EVERYTHING in that game on stream and off. Though I am a bit sad that cosmetic mods (hair, smooth skin, etc.) mean that I couldn’t get the achievements. But I don’t need them to know I did it all.
So, what all did I finish this month gaming-wise?
The links will take you to the playlist/VOD on YouTube if you want to watch them.
Body Paints of the Month
Books I Managed to Read this Month
If they have a ♥ next to them, they are available on Kindle Unlimited. If I did a review, I’ll link it outside I decided to include quick reviews of books or series. If it’s a series, the mini-review is at the end of all the books. Mostly it’s just a quick blurb about what the book/series was about.
- A Game of Retribution (Hades Saga, Book 2) by Scarlett St. Clair – 3.5 stars
- Daisy’s Decision (Icehome, Book 16) by Ruby Dixon – 3.25 stars ♥
- This book sees Daisy, a character viewed as vain and selfish by most of the other characters in the series, decide that she’s not going to wait for her soulmate anymore. She’s going to force the matter and rope O’Jek into joining her. We know he’s been in love with her since the moment she arrived on the frozen planet, so we get to see the two go from being just friends to being mates. I think a lot of the reasons they didn’t mate previously is due to personal reasons. Whenever someone doesn’t resonate in the series right away, it’s because they need to work through things. O’Jek is afraid to let anyone close, so that way he doesn’t have to fear losing them and becoming his mother. And Daisy had to learn how to take care of herself versus keeping the mindset that she must be the image her previous slave master wanted her to be. Once they both got past those things, resonance found them without them approaching Veronica to force the matter.
- Also, I’m looking forward to the next book. I’rec and Flor resonated, and the last few books have set each of them up with someone else. This means Tia will likely be with R’Jaal since they are the only ones left unmated. But I imagine for I’rec and Flor they are going to have an interesting book, especially because Flor calls I’rec penis whenever he calls her female. The moment that happened, I knew they would end up together.
- Curse of Shadows and Thorns (The Broken Kingdoms, Book 1) by LJ Andrews – 4 stars ♥
- Court of Ice and Ash (The Broken Kingdoms, Book 2) by LJ Andrews – 4 stars ♥
- Crown of Blood and Ruin (The Broken Kingdoms, Book 3) by LJ Andrews – 4 stars ♥
- Night of Masks and Knives (The Broken Kingdoms, Book 4) by LJ Andrews – 4 stars ♥
- This series (Book 1-3) is Vikings and Fae meets Beauty and the Beast, while the rest focuses on Cinderella, but they are a connected series. It was seriously good. If you want my full thoughts on the series, check out my review of The Broken Kingdoms.
- Wicked Beauty (Dark Olympus, Book 3) by Katee Roberts – 3.5 stars ♥
- When the old Ares died, a competition was set up to determine the new one. Zeus decides that whoever wins will get to marry his sister, Helen (she didn’t get to have any say in this). Only she doesn’t want to sit around being a trophy, she already planned on joining the other companions to try for the title. This includes Paris (her ex who was emotionally and mentally abusive), Hector (Paris’s brother), Achilles, Patroclus (Achilles’s boyfriend/life-long partner), and several other individuals, including two who seem set on killing anyone (especially Helen) if they stand in their way. During the course of the trials, Achilles, Patroclus, and Helen end up falling in love with each other, which only complicates matters as both Helen and Achilles want the title of Ares more than anything. We also learn after the competition that things are not looking so good for Olympus, and those events are going to be unfolding in the rest of the books. While they were set up to be standalone initially, from the next book onwards, they are going to be even more interconnected.
- Garden of Serpents (The Demon Queen Trials, Book 3) by C. N. Crawford – 3.5 stars ♥
- The final book in The Demon Queen Trials. Orion and Rowan face off against each other for the crown, but while they are on opposing sides, they are in love with each other and have to deal with someone posing as Orion turning everyone against each other and Rowan. This makes Rowan question everything that is happening around her and who she can really trust. I thought it was a good conclusion to the trilogy and am looking forward to reading the spin-off series coming in the future.
- Glow (The Plated Prisoner, Book 4) by Raven Kennedy – 3.5 stars ♥
- Check out my review for my full thoughts. But overall, I liked the book, but at times it felt like a filler book between Gleam and Gold.
- Black Rose Fae (Black Rose Fae, Book 1) by T. H. Hann – 2.75 stars ♥
- It was described as being similar to Cruel Prince but with three instead of one. I believe on TikTok this was advertised as an RH but it’s really not. The Princess has been held captive for the last ten years, and during the course of a less than 200-page book, she goes from one member of the royal family of her enemies to another at least three times. Not to mention, there’s another individual posing as her cousin, the crown princess, whom she is trying to protect. The first captor was physically abusive to her, who she framed so they would be transferred out of his custody. The next captor is the oldest prince, who sexually assaults her. And the last one is the second oldest prince, who treats her nicely, but they have a conflict of interest due to the fact that they have opposite goals (hers being to wipe out all the White Rose Fae that killed her entire family and court). And then, while he’s not one of her captors, there’s the bastard prince who blackmails her into spying on the oldest court after he discovers the fact that the crowned princess is not who everyone believes her to be. It was a fun quick read, but I would’ve loved to see it more fleshed out as there’s a lot happening at once without anything of real depth to it.
- The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, Book 1) by Danielle L. Jensen – 4.25 stars ♥
- Check out my review for my full thoughts.
- Arrows and Apologies (Monsters & Muses, Book 4) by Sav R. Miller – 3.5 stars ♥
- The Apollo and Daphne-inspired tale in the connected stand-alone series by Sav R. Miller. This story follows Alistar Wolfe, who is the mayor of the corrupt island that almost all characters have some connection to in the previous books. And Cora Astor, who is searching for her brother who went missing there. She’s also the cousin of Kal’s half-sister, Violet. The story focuses on Cora trying to find her brother using her job at the mayor’s office, while he’s trying to figure out who’s framing him for embezzlement from the criminal organization he works for. The two end up falling for each other, though they don’t share their secrets with each other until the end of the book when their representative plotlines end up being connected.
- Game of Hate and Lies (The Broken Kingdoms, Book 5) by LJ Andrews – 4 stars ♥
My Rating System
Check out this post to see how my rating scale works, but the quick version is:
- 5 stars = Masterpiece. Nothing can literally be better than this. Not to mention, a major book slump happens afterward where I am unable to pick up another book for quite some time.
- 4 stars = One of the best books I’ve ever read, I couldn’t put it down and found little fault in it.
- 3 stars = A good book but there were some flaws, from editing to plot to you name it.
- 2 stars = Liked the book, but wouldn’t say it was something that was memorable.
- 1 star = Book wasn’t for me.
I almost never give a 5-star rating. Some books have come close, but something always held me back from giving it to those books. I also use .25 increments with the ratings, so there’s a range in each of those levels.
Hope you had a great June!
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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