What a Bachelor Needs by Kelly Hunter

 

 

Your date with ski champ Jett Casey is an either/or deal. He’ll take you off-piste for the ultimate Montana ski adventure or he’ll put his handyman skills at your disposal for a week.

 

Single mom Mardie Griffin has a run-down old house in need of fixing and a memory of Jett Casey as her saviour in a time of great need. So when her friends acquire Jett’s services at a bachelor auction and send him to fix up her house, she sets aside her mistrust of men and lets him in.

 

Elite athlete Jett Casey has the world at his feet and no desire for stability. But there’s one woman he’s never forgotten and if he can help make her safe this time, maybe she’ll stop haunting him.

 

No strings, no sex, no commitment. Just fix things. Surely it can’t be that difficult…

 

Series: Bachelor's Auction # 4 |Publisher: Montana Born | Genre: Contemporary Romance | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4 Cups

Each time I pick up a book from the Bachelor Auctions series I know I’ll be in for a treat.

Jett Casey aided Mardie Griffin during one of the worst moments in her life and neither has spoken to the other since. When Mardi discovers that her friend purchased Jett’s handyman skills for her benefit, Mardie’s a bit hesitant yet she knows her house could do with more than a sprucing up.

Jett’s always wondered what happened to Mardie. When he discovers that she’s now a single-mother working hard to make her own way, he’s more than willingly to help her out. Yet once he spends time with her and her young daughter, he starts to wonder if roaming the world chasing ski championships is worth it.

I loved Mardie. She’s been to hell and back yet she came out fighting and hasn’t stopped since. Her past has made her leery of men yet she knows that she can trust Jett.

Jett was the perfect hero. He knows what Mardie needs, what scars she carries from her past and he’s willing to work to make her and her daughter’s future as safe as possible.

This is the first time that I’ve read a book where the hero was a professional skier, and it was interesting to see how it shaped Jett’s character traits.

I loved that they knew each other in high school and almost shared a ‘moment’ which neither can stop thinking about. It made their chemistry so much more intense.

My one and only flaw with this book was that it was so short. While the plot flowed and the characters were well-developed, this book was so interesting it could have easily been made into a full-length novel.

Overall, What a Bachelor Needs left me smiling and feeling all warm and fuzzy. I was rooting Jett and cheering for Mardie as I read this book in one sitting.

 

Bachelor Auction Series

Book 1: Bound to the Bachelor

Book 2: Bachelor at Her Bidding

Book 3: The Bachelor's Baby
Book 4: What a Bachelor Needs
Book 5: In Bed with the Bachelor

Book 6: One Night with Her Bachelor

  

 

 

Audiobook Review: Jane Vows Vengeance by Michael Thomas Ford

How will Jane Austen break the news to her fiancé that she’s not only undead, but also a 200-plus-year-old literary icon?

 

In sleepy upstate New York, Jane’s wedding preparations have taken on a bloodsucking intensity. So when Walter suggests they ditch it all and combine their marriage and honeymoon with a house tour of Europe, Jane jumps at the chance to flee Lord Byron and the lingering threat of Charlotte Brontë. But to Jane’s chagrin, more than one secret from her past is about to resurface.

 

From an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery to a wedding interrupted by the ghosts of the Princes in the Tower to a shocking revelation about Walter’s mother, nothing about this trip is less than pure mayhem. And when a chance encounter puts Jane on the trail of a legendary device reputed to restore a vampire’s human soul, will our beloved heroine finally be able to vow her love and devotion - or will a vampire hunter’s vengeance drive a stake through her eternal life?

I so wanted to like this audiobook—notice I didn’t say novel or plot. The plot was fabulous. I was hooked from the start and wanted to see how undead Jane Austen—yes, I said undead, she is vampire—such fun!—navigated a wedding, an insufferable recently undead mother-in-law, and a murder mystery.

 

But, I know, there’s always a but, the narrator drove me up the wall. The way she read the book was nerve wracking. I wanted to stuff my ears with cotton and hum a happy tune, especially when the narrator portrayed Lord Byron with a horrible high-pitched Scottish accent. If any of you lovelies discover when Byron turned into a Scot, please let me know.

 

Overall, the narrator ruined it for me. I do look forward to picking up this series and continuing the book but it’s going to be an actual book that I read with my own two eyes.

 

 Audiobook Details

Title: Jane Vows Vengeance
Author: Michael Thomas Ford
Jane Austen: Vampire, Book 3
Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren 
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: 02-25-14 
Format: Unabridged Audiobook
Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins 
Rating: DNF 

Tweet

30 Day Tea/Teapot Challenge Day 9

A friend challenged me to do a 30 days of Teas and Teapots challenge.  So, for the next 30 days, I will be posting the tea that I am drinking as well as the teapot I am using.

 

Feel free to play along and post the tea you are drinking and/or the teapot you are using. Just add your link in the comments or join in on the blog’s Facebook page Simply Angela. On Twitter, use the hashtag #SimplyAngelaTeaChallenge

Teapot/Tea Challenge Day 9 Pomegranate Oolong Tea & Victoria and Albert Teapot

 

Tea: Harney and Son Pomegranate Oolong—this is made with Ti Quan Yin oolong and flavored with pomegranate. The blend is perfect—the oolong is very smooth with just the slightest bite at the end and the pomegranate is so fresh and bright tasting you’d think you just plucked it from the tree.

 

They say that oolong helps you to focus, so if I have a deadline coming up, I’ll brew a large pot of this to keep on hand. It’s also one of those teas that’s nice hot or cold. In the summer, I always have a pitcher of this in the fridge.

 

Teapot: Spring Garden from the Victoria and Albert Fine China Collection. This is such an adorable teapot that immediately makes me think ‘spring’ and after the winter we’ve had, I am so looking forward to spring.

 

I love the design and the fact the print continues on the handle rather than just leaving it white. The shape of it is nice as well. It had a lovely drip-free spout and the lid has a tongue and groove pattern on the inside so that it latches when the teapot is being poured. 

 

Cup and Saucer: Okay, so the cup is nearly as large as the teapot, but it’s one of my favorites and has a nice bowl saucer.

 

I picked this set up at my local art museum. It’s a Kent Pottery piece that has Monet’s "Field of Poppies" printed on it.

 

 

 

Day 1
Day 2 
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8

Tweet

Bachelor At Her Bidding by Kate Hardy

Your date with Parisian-trained chef Ryan Henderson promises you’ll get the best meal of your life cooked especially for you. His Red Velvet cheesecake is to die for – but we know he has even better desserts up his sleeve…

 

How to win a girl in ten cakes…

 

When Dr. Rachel Cassidy comes back to Marietta with a broken heart and a divorce under her belt, going to a Bachelor Auction fund-raiser doesn’t sound like her idea of a good time – and when her sister and friends “buy” her a dinner date with sexy Parisian-trained pastry chef Ryan Henderson, that sounds even worse.

 

Ryan doesn’t have time for dating – he’s put his dreams to one side and come back to Marietta to look after his sick grandmother. But when he agrees to help a charity fundraiser by offering to cook a special meal to one lucky bidder, he gets more than he bargains for and discovers a woman he might just dare to let himself fall in love with.

 

Then tragedy strikes, just when Rachel and Ryan think they might have a future, opening up old scars and pushing them apart.

 

And if they’re to stand a chance of getting back together, then Ryan’s going to have to be seriously inventive. Can he win the love of his life with ten cakes?

 

Series: Bachelor's Auction #2 | Publisher: Montana Born | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4.5 Cups

Bachelor at Her Bidding was a sweet little romance that I couldn’t put down.

 

Ryan Henderson is a Parisian trained pastry chef who gave up his dream job of working as a pastry chef in the city to move back to his hometown and care for his elderly grandmother. He’s been hurt before by women who put themselves before his grandmother and he’s not going to go down that road, but Rachel is too tempting to resist.

 

Dr. Rachel Cassidy has come back to her hometown after her divorce. Her ex-husband has left her emotionally wounded and filled with self-doubt, but when her friends purchase Ryan’s date during the bachelors auction, there is no denying that she’s attracted to him.

 

This is the second installment in the Bachelor Auction Series and it was another brilliant addition.

 

Ryan is one of my favorite heroes from this series. His dedication to family was touching and he was a brilliant chef. And his desserts had my mouthwatering.

 

I liked Rachel but her whole ‘my husband didn’t find me attractive, so no man will find me attractive’ bit got on my nerves. I would have liked to have seen her have a bit more confidence.

 

Both Rachel and Ryan have been hurt before so they were a bit hesitant before jumping into a relationship but they had this amazing chemistry. Although what got under my skin was the fact that they decided to sleep together to get each other out of their systems.

 

The pacing had a nice flow to it and I found that I had most of the book read before I realized it.

 

Overall, I enjoyed this one. It was a lovely little foodie romance that has me searching for a recipe for red velvet cheesecake.  

 

Series Alert: While this is book 2 in the Bachelors Auction Series, the book truly reads as a standalone.  

Bachelor Auction Series

Book 1: Bound to the Bachelor

Book 2: Bachelor at Her Bidding

Book 3: The Bachelor's Baby
Book 4: What a Bachelor Needs
Book 5: In Bed with the Bachelor

Book 6: One Night with Her Bachelor

  

The Bachelor's Baby by Dani Collins

Your date with Bachelor #3 includes champagne and chocolate in the limo that collects you, a helicopter tour of Marietta and the surrounding mountains and valleys, and dinner at a five star restaurant in Great Falls. While oil baron Linc Brady wines and dines you, a maid service will completely clean your home.

 

Who could resist this tempting offer, but Meg Canon plans to do just that. She is only home to clean out her childhood bedroom for her brother’s new step-daughter and then she’s outta her childhood small town and back to her life in Chicago, but when she meets the sexy, renegade millionaire while she’s stuck in the snow, sparks fly and Meg is tempted to maybe stay a little longer.

 

Linc Brady is new in town and happy to help a kid in need, but this? Technically he doesn’t owe Meg a damned thing after she bids on him, after setting him up for the Marietta bachelor auction in the first place, but her high-class city polish is his fatal weakness and makes her impossible to forget. When she agrees to come home with him, he makes it clear he’s a confirmed bachelor. This is a one-night thing. One night that turns into nine months and maybe a lifetime…?

 

Series: Bachelor's Auction #3 | Publisher: Montana Born | Source: Publisher | Rating: 4 Cups

So far, The Bachelor’s Baby is my favorite novel from the Bachelor’s Auction series.

 

When Meg gets her brother’s truck stuck in a snow bank, Marietta’s newest resident and handsome millionaire, Linc Brady, offers to help. Although when he also offers a one-night stand, Meg finds herself wanting to say yes but rather than going back to his place, she gets Lily Taylor to rope him into the bachelor’s auction much to Linc’s chagrin.

 

“Can you tell me if these are self-screwing?” She held up the box in her hand.

His scruffed beard seemed to bristle as his jar hardened.

“Oh, you’ve got a handful of screw yourself,” he assured her.

She swallowed back a laugh, pretty sure that would get her into more trouble than she already stood in. Instead, she turned the box over in her hands. She hadn’t had this much fun in ages. “Maybe one nail would be simpler?”

“Why are you so pissed off?” he demanded.

“I’m not, I’m really not,” she insisted. “I think it’s funny.”

“You think tricking me into standing on a stage and have women bid on me like a stud bull is funny?”

 

Now the fight is on and the attraction is even stronger when Meg and Linc enter into a bidding war over himself. Finally giving in, the two share a night of passion that results in a pregnancy that rocks their worlds.

 

Sexually charged and entertaining, The Bachelor’s Baby had me glued from the first page.

 

While the surprise baby trope was a bit predictable, the characters had me reading until the wee hours of the morning.

 

Having been adopted as a baby, Meg has always wondered who her birth parents were and why they had given her up. Because of this, she struggles with finding herself, yet when she enters into a one-night stand with Linc, she’s finally is free to be her true herself.

 

I liked Meg, at times she could be a bit ‘poor me’ and whiney but at the same time she was likable and realistic.

 

Linc was an enjoyable yet realistically flawed hero. He’s content living his life having a string of one-night stands to avoid emotional connections. Issues in his past have kept him from establishing a firm and lasting relationship with a woman although when Meg’s in his bed, he starts to realize just how big his new house is for just one man. His character defiantly had more of a character arc and it was interesting watching as he came to grips with the baby situation as well as having an actual relationship.

 

“C’mere,” he invited, lifting his arm to make a space beside him.

“You cuddle?” She slid down on the bed, more for the cover of the blankets than anything, and let him pull her into his cooled skin.

“I prefer to think of it as after-play with potential, but sure.”

 

The chemistry between the characters was amazing. I enjoyed how they went from potential lovers to sparring partners to lovers then finally working on establishing a relationship.

 

The pacing ebbed and flowed and I thought that a few things felt a bit rushed here and there, but it was a short story so I see why the author did it.

 

Overall, I’m loving the Bachelor’s Auction series. Each time I pick up a Montana Born book, it’s like visiting old friends. I cannot wait to read the next one.

 

Bachelor Auction Series

Book 1: Bound to the Bachelor

Book 2: Bachelor at her Bidding

Book 3: The Bachelor's Baby
Book 4: What a Bachelor Needs
Book 5: In Bed with the Bachelor

Book 6: One Night with Her Bachelor

 

 

 

30 Day Tea/Teapot Challenge Day 8

A friend challenged me to do a 30 days of Teas and Teapots challenge.  So, for the next 30 days, I will be posting the tea that I am drinking as well as the teapot I am using.

 

Feel free to play along and post the tea you are drinking and/or the teapot you are using. Just add your link in the comments or join in on the blog’s Facebook page Simply Angela. On Twitter, use the hashtag #SimplyAngelaTeaChallenge

Teapot/Tea Challenge Day 8 Tea: Ancient Pu-erh Tuo Cha Tea and Primula Glass Teapot

Tea:

Tuo Cha, meaning ‘bowl tea’, is a compressed Pu-erh tea from China’s Yunnan Province. It’s a centuries-old artisan tea and is often pressed into bricks, cakes, and bowls.

 

I love this tea. It’s one of my favorites. Although I don’t use it as an everyday tea because of the price—I think it was like $40 for 10 bowls.

 

It has a mild malty taste that reminds me of a Tippy Yunnan. It’s very smooth and easy to drink. I was hesitant to try this tea because the dry tea has a smell that I can only liken to fish food. Thankfully, the smell and taste of the wet tea is nothing like the smell of the dry tea.

When you break the tea, always break on the dome side.

 

 Because this is a pressed tea—meaning the leaves have been pressed into a shape, then dried—you’ll need to break the tea before using it. If you add the entire bowl to the teapot, the tea will taste like mud. FYI: When you buy this tea, most sellers will try to push you into buying an overpriced Pu-erh knife (the cheapest I’ve found was $29). Tell them to keep the knife. All you need to break the tea with is a clean flat surface—I used the end of a wooden-handled butter knife. I’ve also used the bottom of a spice jar.

 

 

Once you’ve broken the tea into dime-sized pieces, add them to a teapot with a wide bottom. You’ll want room for the tea to expand. Allow to steep for 4 minutes before serving.

 

 

How to store this tea once broken:

This tea will come wrapped in paper, usually rice or mulberry paper. Pick up the corners of the paper and twist together so that the tea is in a bundle. If you do not have a glass or metal tea tin to store the bundle in, just wrap the bundle in a small piece of cling wrap then place in a baggie.

 

 

Teapot: 

The teapot I’m using is a glass teapot from Primula. I actually purchased this teapot the same day I purchased the tea because the teardrop shape of the teapot is perfect for brewing Pu-erh and Yunnan Teas.

 

The bottom is wide enough that it allows the tea to expand and the spout pours smoothly—not so much as a dribble ran down the spout. It also keeps the tea hot without having to cover it with a cozy. A huge plus for me was the handle. There are actually spacers between the handle and the belly of the teapot so the handle doesn’t heat up.

 

 

Teacup and Saucer:

I found this little lovely at an estate sale. It came as a three-piece set—cup, saucer, and bread and butter plate (also called a dessert plate). And I picked it up for a song. I think I only paid $6 for the set. You don’t often find a Royal Mail pattern in brown, the ones I’ve seen have been in black of olive green. Often times you only find the cup or the saucer, so it was rare to find three pieces in the same color.

Fun Tea Fact: This tea—Pu-erh—was traded by mule caravan across the Ancient Tea & Horse Routes to Tibet and Mongolia, where it became integral to local food cultures as an after-meal digestive and wellness tea. It was also used as a form of currency to trade for horses and salt.

Day 1
Day 2 
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7

Tweet