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Tangled up in You by Rachel Gibson

Maddie Jones is a True-Crime-writer and now she is writing a book on her mothers murder which took place when she was five. She returns to Truly, Idaho to gather information. There she runs into Mick Hennessy, who's dad had a love affair with her mother... and who's mom shot her, her husband and herself. Like Alice Jones before her, Maddie start falling for the Hennessy charm.

Rachel Gibson is one of my favorite romance authors - the other one being Susan Elizabeth Phillips - and I always enjoy reading one of her books. They're a fun and easy read, which I enjoy to wind down.

'Tangled Up In You' is the third part in a mini series about for writers, and in my opinion it is the nicest one so far. It is well written, but of course it doesn't have the poetry flow of, say, a book by L.M. Montgomery.

Thinks I didn't like where that the three main characters are named Mick, Maddie and Meg and it happened a few times that I mixed up the female characters and got confused. Mick and Maddie is okay (and at least the third one wasn't called Meggie), but I think one name with a different first letter would have been beneficial.

Also, there is this huge time jump toward the end of the book and while nothing developed between the main characters during that time (because... duh before the happy ending they need to break up at least once) and it is used as a device to portrait Maddie's depression and hurt I would have liked a little something more there.

Third and last, I don't believe Maddie wrote the book in what? 6 months? Maybe it was only the first draft?

All in all this romance novel gets
3.5/5 stars

I got my last Christmas present today.

Sitting in the sun at 31°C (88°F)

Wearing a skirt and a top.

Working on a presentation on dead wood.

I can't imagine a better thing to do right now...

So, I was sitting in the kitchen sipping ~something~ and thought 'this is something that makes summer special for me!'  I decided to share some things with you guys that makes each season of the year special  and what makes me excited that it is this season again. It will be a series, so keep looking for updates!

What to love about Summer No. 1

( Strawberry Milk )

Talk to you soon!

Verena

So, during the last few weeks I really got into the make-up/ beauty world (at first to find something to help with my skin problems) and I watched a whole bunch of videos on youtube. Foundation routines, cleaning routines, make-up tutorials, hauls and reviews without end.

One of the things everyone was talking about was Lush soap and bath products, which I tought were really neat and I wanted to try them. But since the next German Lush Shop is quite a ways away, I decided to order some samples on ebay to see if I liked them.

I got 10 little samples and I tried about half of them by now and I have to say, I'm not impressed. I'm not entirely blaming the porducts, though.

Let me explain. It seems to be a mixture of me being not careful and the previous owner not storing them right.

I got samples of: Miranda soap (2x), Angel in the Dark soap, Ice Blue soap, Christmas cake soap, Therapy Bar, King of Skin, Happy Hippy Shower Gel and Heavenly Bodies Buttercreme.

4 of these things smell orange-y or minty, smells I do not enjoy very much and thus, I do not enjoy the product very much. But that's just my personal opinion. Smells are very personal, after all, and this is where the blame lies on me. (I knew 1 would be minty-- 1 would have been okay...) Nothing wrong with the product per se.

The other 6 things should smell at least okay to me, but -- they do not! I blame bad storing for that. The soaps came wrapped in little paperbags, but I believe they have been lying together like this for quite long because they mixed scents. They all smell pretty much the same (at least the soaps/massage bars), and since it is fruity and minty and whatnot mixed together, it smells really weird and not very good at all. The mint scent is the most overpowering and my least favorite...

I liked the cleaning quality of the soaps though and I'm absolutely in love with the massage bars! 

I will store them scent-proof now and I hope they will eventually show their own scents after using them a few times. I will also visit the Lush store in Cologne pretty soon. I have to go somewhere near their for a doctors appointment, so I'll take a little detour, look for some good smelling soaps and definitely grab a massage bar or two.

So, for now Lush get's a 2 out of 5 from me, but let's see what I have to say after I picked up 'fresh' stuff.


Bye, Verena


PS: Did you know they had Enzymion Face Cream? I read it and I just saw Mamoru in the adverts for it. ^^

9 books for 2009 challenge
Category: Strange

This book is marked as a psycho-thriller, which is why it is in the strange category for me. Usually I read YA, romance, and fantasy novels with an occasional detective-novel thrown in. So this one's different for me.

Kathryn Dance is a CBI-agent who studied kinesic, the science of body language. She can detect lies during her interrogations just by bodily stress actions. When Daniel Pell, done in for murder, breaks out of prison after she interrogated him, her boss makes her the head of operation. But Daniel Pell (a.k.a. Manson's Son) was a cult leader in the past, he has an analytical mind, the instincts of a cat and the knowledge of how to make people obey him. He's intelligent and dangerous, always a step or two ahead of the police. But as Kathryn begins to understand him, she is fast catching up.

This is a great book! It's thrilling and deep and, well, somewhat disturbing, too. How easily people can be manipulated (especially if they do not have much self-worth) and what they will DO just to please somebody!

The whole book only spans over six days, but it doesn't feel that way. There is so much going on!

Also, things aren't quite what they seem. I didn't detect anything suspicious, though. Everything was clear as day and I distinctively remember thinking on page 450: "Okay, so now the last mystery is solved. Why are there still 100 pages to go? Wrapping it all up shouldn't take more than 20."

And then - not ten pages later - the first plot twist. -Wham- the second. And a third. All perfectly logical but not foreseeable. It was an action loaded ending, that for sure.

The only two things I didn't like are:

1. That, when the author explained kincesic at the beginning, I sometimes thought I was reading an essay and not a novel. Of course it was necessary to explain the science, but it could have been done differently, maybe in thoughts ("He's fiddling with his coffee cup. He's stressed and lying.") or in a dialog.

2. Random facts about persons. I don't care that Michael collects books and enjoys sailing! It doesn't contribute to the story! Maybe it makes him seem more real, but I'm interested in finding out the next step of the police/Pell, not that he'd have made a great captain in the 17-hundreds!

(CBI = California Bureau of Investigation)


4 stars

Stolen from aliciablade , who found it at: http://9for09.wordpress.com/


The goal is to read 9 books that you already own during 2009. The trick: they must fit into the 9 categories below.


1. Long (any length that is long for you)
2. Free (you didn't pay for it)
3. Dusty (it's been on your shelf so long it's gotten dusty)
4. Used (had at least one previous owner, but you paid for it)
5. Letter (title must include any letter from your name or blog title)
6. Strange (out of your usual genre)
7. Cover (prettiest or ugliest)
8. Award (at least nominated, not necessarily winner; if you don't have any award books, then you can substitute a book by a dead author)
9. Distance (author's birthplace or book's setting is more than 1000 miles from your present location)


I thought I could incorporate it into my 30 books challenge.


Long: Horus by Wolfgang Hohlbein
Free: Die Teufelshaube by Ariana Franklin
Dusty: Wicked by Gregory Maguire (I actually got halfway through the first time, but there are so many political terms I don't know)
Used: ??
Letter:  ??
Strange: The Sleeping Doll by Jeffrey Deaver
Cover: Die Priesterin von Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Award: ??
Distance: Mit Haut und Haar by Kathy Reichs

I started a Herman Sourdough starter about a week ago and against instructions I kept it at room temperature instead of in the fridge. I did that all the time I was younger and nothing ever happened... but today I figured out WHY you should keep it cool.

Because... the yeast starts to produce alcohol in a warm sourrounding. I opened my glass today to stirr it, caught a wiff of the fumes... and boy, did my head get fussy. Like drinking a shot. It went directly to my head. If it hadn't looked like dough I could have sold it as Schnapps.

So, no fluffy light herman cake on the weekend... too bad.

Well, maybe I should say a background/general-information rabbit and a plot bunny?

Sometimes, life is just unfair. I read this awesome Harry Potter fanfic and after wards I was spinning additional scenes and different endings in my head (which I do very often) and then I thought: What if...?

A very short time later I realized, that:
a) No one ever wrote a HP-FF like that (at least, I haven't read any... not saying what, though)
b) my 'what if?' strayed very much from the original, mostly only keeping some wizarding customs, villages and political information
c) this could be an awesome story.
d) I had tremendous background ideas already

Now, about 2 days later I realize, that:
a) still, there is no fic like this out there
b) this could be a awesome story, and one could build on it until it was novel-length
c) I already have 2 page (in word) of general information, the background story, plausible explanations (Prophecy and Voldemort-vise) which is the most I ever had since I usually translate. The longest plot bunny outline I ever had before was half a page!
d) - that I don't have an actual plot. I have a beginning, but I don't know what will happen.

just basics. 08/15 information that is quite often used for independent!Harry and manipulative!Dumbledore. something like:
Harry comes into his inheritance - gets to know some DE personally - realizes Dumbles is wrong(= his political views aren't good for the wizarding world) and the 'dark' wizards have the better political ides - Dumbles manipulates pupils at Hogwarts (mostly Muggelborns though) - Voldy is still around the bent - Harry has to defeat Voldy (with his new powers of his inheritance) and work against Dumbles - win!

So, it would be adventure/quest like, has quite a lot Slytherin cunning and is not really a flip/flop fic (aka. good is bad and bad is good), but shows that ... well gray is the way to go.

So my question and cry for help is:

How do you actually work on something like this? I have never written anything by myself.
Where do I get my ideas? Like I said, I have a background plot and the beginning and a very rough outline. I still need ideas for events, confrontations with dumbledore, fights with voldemort.... very, very much...

I can't really get 100% started until after finals, but it doesn't disappear from my head.

So, what are your writing and plotting techniques???

So, here are my resolutions! Let's see what I can do! (I stole the outline fromaliciablade )

Writing

~ Translate and post 'Raspberry Jam'
~ Translate at least 20 chapters of 'The House on Thornrose Lane' and start posting
~ Write at least 12 drabbles
~ Re-read 'Fantasy' and decide, if I want to translate the old or the new version. Start translating after I finished 'Raspberry Jam'

Reading

~ Read 30 books and write a review
~ Make real progress in lowering the amount of unread books on my bookshelf

Health

~ Lose 10 kg and don't gain back
~ Take up sports again (regular)
~ Try out new sports and find something I like
~ Eat more fruits/veggies and less meat
~ Eat less sweets

Social

~ Make new friends
~ Make more of an effort to see friends on a regular basis
~ Host games nights, and movie nights

Academic

~ Give my best in courses
~ Figure out if teaching is really what I want to spent the rest of my life doing or if a job in publishing agency is better suited (Lector, Editor, Translator?)

Happy New Year everyone!

Yay!
Today I had  an awesome party with my friends. We were only three people (Tini, Anne and I) because Jule, Litsa and Resi couldn't come (visit from her father, engagement party of a relative and a performance with her band respectively), but we had great fun. We ate cake, tons of sweets and a light supper, watched 'License to wed', some action flick I forgot the name of and half of 'The Two Towers' We had great fun. I also received my first presents!
Two really cool belts, a book to write down recipes in and dried oranges and limes (decoration)...

All in all, a really good day. Only letdown: I have a slight cold, Hopefully it will go away till Christmas...

today... I don't feel very happy. I'm just stressed and tired. I spent 14 hours on the way to university, at university and on the way back home, got told that my trip to the Dortmund Weihnachtsmarkt was canceled and I phoned one of my friends and she told me that her grandfather and uncle died, her aunt is in hospital and her boyfriend broke up with her.

Well, I suppose it is positive to say, that I am at least somewhat happy because tomorrow is the last day of university and the I have a blissful 2 1/2 weeks before I have to go back...

I got all christmas presents I was going to buy and I already wrapped them. I also finished my 'music' christmas surprise for one of my friends and now I only have to finish the 'scarf'-project and operation 'little stitched bird' which I definitely will get finished till next Wednesday!
Christmas can come!

I also spent a great couple of hours with one of my friends shopping (for presents) and we had a swell time! That I didn't see her in weeks made it even better!

Today was good, because I got the christmas party of me and my friends organized to about 90%. It will be 94% tomorrow afternoon after I talked to Jule and as soon as Resi has her mobile phone working again, it will be 98%. Then I will only have to decide on food.

I have ideas for almost all my christmas presents now - only missing 2!

I got my trip to the Dortmund Weihnachtsmarkt on Friday organized - just need to copy it clean.

And, last but not least, I have a clue what to do about my mathemathiks assignment! I even did some of it and the ideas were right (even if I got a wrong answer in the end, but that are just miscalculations...)



Going to bed now.
I slept a whooping three and a half hours last night and was at university from 8 to 5... and just spent over an hour on the phone... after doing some assignments...... ... .... *z z z* *jerks awake*

Okay, over and out