Category Archives: Uncategorized

I was working the graveyard/night shift at our local hospital as a CNA on the medical/surgical unit.  It had been busy most of the night.  We only had a few patients on our floor, but for some reason everyone was unsettled.  The patients were having a hard time sleeping and my paperwork had been piling up.

Finally, sometime after 2am, everyone on the floor had finally fallen asleep for the remainder of the evening.  The nurse and I decided to sit back and relax.  We were playing a game of rummy and just chatting for a bit.  We drank our coffee and flipped through magazines not knowing what was about to happen.  I didn’t know that while I was laughing at the newest photos of celebrity hairstyles and fashion disasters that a true disaster was beginning to emerge in the morning.

The nurse looked over at me around 5am and said that she felt a little off.  She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she felt like there was something wrong.  We went and checked on each of the patients and nothing was wrong with any of them.  She figured it was just side effects of the 12 hour shift we were on that had been weird from the get go.

While we had just finished up our final morning rounds and were preparing to give the shift change report a final look over, the girls for the next shift started to arrive.  One of them asked if we had watched any of the morning news yet or seen the paper? We told her that we hadn’t done either and that we had been feeling a little off all evening and early morning.  She quickly turned the nurses station TV onto the news and told us to watch.

As we sat there watching the World Trade Centers under attack, we couldn’t believe our eyes.  This doesn’t happen to America!  We are suppose to be safe!  I was in shock at what was happening before my eyes on our small TV.  Even though none of us knew anyone personally in New York or on those planes, we all sat there and cried.  Our shift report was forgotten and we all sat and said a small prayer for everyone involved.

I was tired, but I couldn’t bring myself to go to sleep when I got home.  Thankfully, I was off that evening and was able to stay up and watch the rest of the terror unfold on the television.  I cried for most of the day and my heart broke for each of the lives that I knew were never going to be able to go home to their family again.

When my children came home from school that day, I hugged them and never wanted to let them go.  They were young and didn’t know what was really going on.  Now that they have grown older, they understand and they say a prayer of their own for those lives that were lost.

9/11/2001 is a day that I will never forget what I was doing or the emotions that were going through my heart.  It is a day that America will never forget as well.  I remind my children everyday and especially on 9/11 that I love them.  We watch the remembrance shows on TV and we will NEVER forget what we have learned.  Life is precious and can be taken away in the blink of an eye.

Hold your family safe, and remember those who are not with us today because of this horrible tragedy.

September is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month.  Avon Books has made an initial donation of $25,000 to the Alliance. And—with your help—Avon Books has also committed to donating 25¢ from the sale of each book, physical and eBook, in the “K.I.S.S. and Teal” promotion between 8/30/2011 and 2/28/2012, up to an additional $25,000 toward programs that support ovarian cancer patients and their families.

Each year in the United States, more than 21,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and about 15,000 women die of the disease.  This is a serious disease that needs to become a front runner in the search for a cure.

The Seduction of Scandal
by Cathy Maxwell

It is my great pleasure to introduce to you Kristi from the Story Siren!  Almost every book blogger knows who Kristi is and if you are a new blogger, this is one blogger that you will hear about a lot! Not only is she one of the great book bloggers in the blog-o-sphere, but she is also one of the nicest out there.  Instead of the regular interviews of normal questions, I decided to delve a little deeper into fun things with Kristi instead.  So lets get started with the fun!

I don’t know…? That’s sort of a hard question to answer because I don’t feel like it’s that way. Granted, when I go to a signing and someone says.. “hey you’re Kristi from The Story Siren.” it’s unbelievably awesome… but I guess I’ve never been easily impressed by myself.

She’s doing good! She just had her last in patient treatment at the end of July… just has the out patient ones now. She’s been a real trooper through the whole process. She’s just trying to be a “normal” girl.

Not currently, well I have a few on goodreads, but I’ll be blogging about romance books with some other book bloggers at Books ‘n’ Bodices… hopefully it will be up soon!

I like to cook and bake, although I’m not all that great at either. I love going to the movies! I’m not a big shopper unless it’s for books. 🙂

I love to travel and wish I had the time and money to do more of that.

I think they’re great! Do I still prefer a hard copy…. yes, but our society is all about the “right now” and if they means that more people are reading, I’m for it. I don’t think we’ll ever see a complete extinction of a physical book, well at least in my lifetime, but I think it’s cool that people are excited to read again!

700? Although, I’m sure it’s more than that.

Fabulously! I’ve been slacking a little on my end… I’m so horrible at designating help. I’m one of those “no one will do it as good as I can do it.” people and then I just get over my head and suck it up. It should be better next year, I’ve got several people helping already, so I’m hoping!

I just love promoting books and especially debuts…. some of my favorite authors are ones that I’ve discovered through their debut novels. I want everyone to have that!

Seriously… you are asking me this! Ugh… probably my signed copy of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. An old worn out copy of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty that my grandma used to read to me, and my kindle with all the books from my bookshelf on there! That wasn’t cheating was it? Well at least the first two were legit… the third is a toss up.

Hmm… I don’t necessarily think there are characters that I’d say I would like us to be. There are no boys in YA that hold a candle to my honey. There are too many story lines where they hate each other initially… and we weren’t like that, or where the guy is generally a jack-ass and J definitely is not like that. We were never best friends who grew into something more… we are our own original story. (How corny is that!)

You know I get asked about this secret list all the time, and it’s doesn’t exists people! It’s a conspiracy! I don’t know where you crazy book bloggers come up with this stuff!

SAVOR THE DANGER
Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor #3
Author: Lori Foster
Source: Personal Purchase

Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: HQN Books; Original edition (June 28, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0373775822
ISBN-13: 978-0373775828

She may be aloof, and more pretty than gorgeous, but Alani Rivers is the kind of woman a hot-blooded mercenary can’t forget, no matter how hard he tries. So when Jackson Savor wakes up next to the naked, sleeping beauty—with no memory of what happened— he knows he’s been drugged…even if Alani doesn’t.

After she was kidnapped, Alani vowed never to trust another man again. Still, something about this strong, sexy hero with the tender touch makes her want to believe him. As Jackson hunts down a mysterious intruder, he swears he’ll move heaven and earth to keep Alani safe. But what really happened that night? And will the truth bring them closer than they ever thought possible—or put Alani squarely in harm’s way again?

This series is like a drug for readers.  Once you start with the first book in the series, you can’t help the addiction you get for the characters and story.  After reading the first two books, I was craving this story involving my favorite mercenary Jackson Savor. He has the whole package ladies!  He has the sex appeal, the witty mouth, and the confidence an Alpha male needs!  When he wakes up one morning, he finds himself naked in bed with Trace Rivers sister.  While Alani is in blissful heaven with what happened the night before, Jackson can’t seem to remember any of it.  While this hurts Alani at first, the two quickly realize that Jackson was drugged and they need to figure out the how and why of it all.  With the help of Trace and Dare, Jackson and Alani start putting the puzzle pieces together and find true romance for each other along the way. 

I absolutely loved this book the best out the whole series.  Jackson is by far my favorite and everything that came out of his mouth was sexy and at times hilarious.  Honestly, he has so many great lines in this book that I can’t even pick out my favorite quote!  There is action, sex appeal, romance and danger with every chapter in the book.  I am amazed how easily the story flows and how the author can create such a great story full of engaging characters.

If you haven’t read this series yet, you need to start ASAP.  If you are a fan of romantic suspense, you will easily find yourself addicted to this series as well!

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading!