Ebook - Cook Book :Healthy Mediterranean Gourmet Review

I received this item in exchange for an honest review.

One thing I love to do but I don't blog about enough is cooking. I try to get the freshest ingredients possible with the fewest chemicals. I pride myself on providing healthy meals for my family but there's always more to be learned. Today I'm reviewing a cookbook called Healthy Mediterranean Gourmet. 

Blurb:
Mediterranean Healthy Gourmet is a way of life. Many people associate the word ‘gourmet’ with cholesterol-laden and not particularly healthy dishes served in expensive restaurants. It’s very tasty, but only to be eaten on special occasions.
No more. Mediterranean Healthy Gourmet presents a new concept in the Mediterranean cuisine, which is known as very healthy.
A cuisine with a rich variety of tastes, fine dishes that are easy to prepare,
and the freedom to enjoy an excellent meal every day – and stay healthy.
Mediterranean Healthy Gourmet cuisine is based on the following principles:
Fresh and top quality ingredients, which can be purchased in any local store and market. Avoidance of deep-frying. Avoiding the use of ingredients that are high in saturated fats (red meat, cream, butter etc.) Simple preparation processes, cooking with equipment available in every home, and quick cooking.
Today it is obvious that in order to keep healthy in life’s race, three fundamental principles must be upheld: engage in regular physical activity, avoid smoking, and eat a healthy diet.
Mediterranean Healthy Gourmet provides a response to the issue of healthy eating every day.
In this book you will find dozens of recipes, all of which have been tried hundreds of times in the homes of the authors, over the course of twenty-five years. You will also find suggestions for including the recipes in gourmet home meals to serve to guests, on the holidays, as fast meals
prepared after the day’s work, and for children.
Mediterranean Healthy Gourmet is a better way of life, healthier and tastier.   

Review:

I've been very interested in Mediterranean cooking for a long time because that's the region some of my ancestors came from. I'm sure this is the kind of diet I should be eating if we could afford it. I thought this book would be interesting to read just to see if there are any recipes I can make within my small budget. 

I don't agree with the authors about some of the healthy eating choices as I strongly believe what may be healthy for one person may not be good for another individual. They also encourage the use of cooking sprays which may contain chemicals or at least unhealthy oils. Cringe. 

However this cookbook does have some good basics to get you started. At times too basic such as the instructions for cooking rice which may actually not be correct depending upon your rice. Many of the recipes do look and sound good. I hope to try more of them but we don't normally eat many of the foods used in this cookbook. 

I was trying to think of a dessert for Thanksgiving and thought I'd turn to this cookbook. I decided to make the berry soup which is a strawberry purée with mixed berries and a few other ingredients and topped with whipped cream. I thought it was pretty good if not different. 

I do hope to use this cookbook more in the future. 

Healthy Mediterranean Gourmet is available on Amazon.com for $2.99 or for free with Kindle Unlimited.

Del Sol Color Change – Black Friday Sale

I will be compensated for any sales which result from users following my link. Regardless, all opinions are my own.

For anyone who doesn't know, Del Sol is a maker of color change items, namely nail polish. They recently provided me with some nail polish to review - which I will be getting to in the next week or so. I'm very happy with the polish so far. In the meantime, check out this awesome Black Friday sale they're having!

- Discount: 50% Off Sitewide
- Coupon Code: WOAH
- Valid 11/27 – 11/29
- Start shopping here 

50% off everything! Their nail polishes are $10 a piece so for $5 a piece you could pick up some pretty awesome and unique polishes. Even I might not be able to pass up this sale.

They have some great stocking stuffer ideas as well :) Del Sol makes a lot of different fun things, not just nail polish. They sell t-shirts, jewelry, hats, sunglasses, backpacks and more. Everything changes color in the sun, too!

Here's a sneak peak at one of the polishes I will be reviewing :) This is Barely There.

Shade

 

Sunlight

Born Pretty Store Giveaway

Sponsored giveaway.

Born Pretty Store recently sent me some goodies to review, and they sent me some extras to be used in a giveaway! I won't be doing the reviews for a few more weeks but there is a Christmas / Winter themed item here so I wanted to go ahead and set up the giveaway first. This will run until December 14 and then I will try to get it into the mail ASAP so hopefully the winner will receive it before Christmas :) Sorry, but this will be US only.

Here is everything you will get.

1 Sheet Zodiac Nail Art Water Decals Transfer Stickers Constellations Numbers Pattern  item # 20072 value of $1.25

120pcs 3D Metal Christmas Nail Art Decoration Snowflake Gold Decorations in Wheel item # 22959 value of $1.99

15ml White Peel Off Liquid Tape & Peel Off Base Coat Nail Art Liquid Palisade Nail Art Latex item # 22612 value of $2.99 - *note: does not have a label on the bottle as shown on the Web site. My bottle doesn't either, for whatever reason.

All products are brand new and have never been opened.

Here is a closeup of the glitters. Image is copyright Born Pretty Store.  I think it looks like a fun set of glitters just in time for Christmas and Winter ^-^

Rules:
US only, ages 18+
ends December 14, 2015

Ebook - Unbreakable: A Story of Faith and Belief Review

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Life can be such a challenge sometimes. I have very limited time this morning, as I am still sick but going to volunteer this morning. I just spent the past 15 minutes typing up a blog post which has now been lost to the ghosts of cyber space. Oh well. Maybe I'll work on it again when I come home if I'm feeling up to it and have the time. As I think about the challenges which present to me in the next few hours, I give you the story of an amazing woman who has been faced with many incredible challenges throughout her life.

 Blurb:

Experience the strength of faith, courage, and love
Fate and Belief are the major elements creating this inspiring life story of Yaffa Golan, who was born in Lebanon and immigrated with her family to Israel, grew up in poverty, but against all odds became the manager of a bank branch and later a highly successful businesswoman.
When Golan uncovered extensive bank fraud, she received death threats and was finally forced to resign. Later, she exposed irregularities in nonprofit organizations that helped Holocaust survivors; here, too, she struggled to bring the truth to light in the face of legal battles, persecution, and financial ruin. Despite this hardship, Golan has managed to establish a flourishing business and created legal precedents for benefits entitled to Holocaust survivors from the German Social Security pension for ghetto employees.
˃˃˃ The inner strength of a determined woman
This turbulent flow of events, unbelievable at times, illustrates the inner strength of a determined woman who single-handedly dared to overcome obstacles. Sharing her life experience, wisdom, acute business insight, strong sense of intuition, and the ability to predict consequences, the author relates fierce legal debates on matters of life and death; her own development of original patents; as well as an empowering, unique mother-daughter relationship.
Combining business and personal details, Yaffa Golan, born in 1942, offers a fascinating retrospective accord of special moments great and small in her volatile life, both beginnings and closures.
This is a must read for anyone who wishes to experience the strength of faith, courage, and love.

Review:
I have an acquaintance who has worked in bank fraud. Additionally, the wife of my great uncle was a Holocaust survivor. For these reasons, I was very interested in reading this book and I felt it would be quite fascinating to read. I was not disappointed. Yaffa Golan is quite the story teller. Her life has been full of interesting challenges, and I thoroughly enjoyed many of the personal stories. So many things which she reflected on would seem to be strange coincidences to the scientific mind, or the hand of God to the religious. Many of the stories are so surreal and seem almost too strange and interesting to be real.

It was very interesting reading about her heritage, and especially her mother's street smarts which so many people don't seem to have. I was especially touched by her story about her brother's epilepsy being cured once the family moved to Israel. Having epilepsy myself, this story really stood out for me. I can also deeply appreciate her stories of financial struggle but at the same time it was really interesting to read the entire book and to see how all of the pieces came together for her in the end through hard work. This was very encouraging, as someone who has been struggling for many years.

As someone who makes all of our bread from scratch, I was awed at reading about how her family ate 8 - 9 loaves of bread a day. I can appreciate how much work that is, but also how that poor of nutrition must have affected them. Her descriptions about poverty left me no longer feeling poor.

It was quite interesting learning some more about Judaism, which I know little about. I was surprised by how much mysticism played a part in her life. As a former Computer Science major, I also enjoyed reading about the National accounting machine. There were some parts of her stories which I didn't quite understand because I'm not familiar with all of the legal workings, and the workings of the banks. This did not keep me from enjoying the stories, nonetheless.

With everything going on in the world right now, it's pretty easy to imagine some of the things she went through during her struggles of uncovering fraud. It was truly frightening to read about everything she went through while trying to uncover the truth.  I have a lot of respect for this woman, for her bravery, and her passion for helping others and her drive to do what is right. Yaffa Golan is obviously a very intelligent and innovative woman.

I very much enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

This ebook is free with Kindle Unlimited or available at $4.99 for Kindle or $15.99 for paperback from Amazon. 

Yoga backpack by Gecko Active review

I received this item in exchange for an honest review. 

A few months ago I was directly contacted by a sporting goods company called Gecko Active. They sell items such as yoga bags, beach blankets and the backpack I have for review today. 

Blurb:

• waterproof nylon
• Durable, heavy-duty, waterproof nylon. Multi-purpose yoga backpack. Weight-balanced sling pack design for comfort, easy access and reduced shoulder strain.
• Secure, adjustable mat locking system fits yoga mats up to 7 pounds. (Aurorae, Manduka, Gaiam, Lululemon, Jade, Hugger Mugger, etc.). Includes nylon yoga mat bag for extra protection from sun, wind and rain.
• 21.5 liters (1312 cubic in.) capacity provides ample room for all your yoga and fitness gear. (1) Large main compartment is a generous 18 liters in size. (2) Secondary front compartment gives an additional 3.5 liters of storage. (3) Separate padded laptop compartment fits up to 13 inch notebook. (4) Two additional zippered pouches (1 inside, 1 outside) for all your valuables.
• Adjustable, premium-padded 'comfort strap' with quick-release buckle. Right shoulder sling strap design with built-in easy-access cell phone pocket.
• Includes "60-DAY, No-Questions-Asked Refund Guarantee", PLUS an exceptional "1-Year Free Product Replacement WARRANTY."

Review: 

I like this bag because it comes in a nice variety of colors so there's a color selection for just about anyone. The bag is a nice size and contains lost of room for carrying around your things. The cellphone pocket is a nice addition and is  conveniently placed on the front strap so it's nice and handy. My iPhone 6 fits without problem. Also my water bottle fit just fine if not a little snug. 

The yoga bag is a very nice size and unlike my other yoga bag I had no problems getting my mat to fit. I tested it for waterproofness and had no problems. 

I did test the backpack for waterproofness as well and that failed big time. So while my ancient and very bulky 2001 notebook computer fits inside this just fine, I personally wouldn't risk carrying electronics in this if water may be an issue. On closer inspection I realized the eyelets on the side are the problem. They allow water to go right into the bag. That is very poor design and someone should have given that better thought. 

Edit.  There's a smaller compartment next to the one with the eyelets which I didn't notice. I'm certain this is the intended space for notebook computers. I still wouldn't risk it as this section did get wet as well. 

Additionally I found when carrying my yoga mat with this it was a bit akward. With my large chest, it was difficult to get a good fit where the backpack would stay in place. 

Still, this would be a decent bag for going to a yoga class, or the gym. I think in the future I will primarily use it when hiking. 

This Gecko Active yoga backpack is available on Amazon.com for $29.89 and is eligible for free shipping on orders over $35. It is available in black, purple, kind of a spring green, and navy blue.

Meeting goals

I have nothing to disclose.

For the longest time it has seemed like I keep making goals and just never get anywhere with them despite my best efforts. I'm intellectually trying to understand why that is and I honestly can't explain it. I'm wondering if other people have this problem as well. It always feels like I'm just chasing my own tail. Granted I know my poor health is part of the reason I struggle so with some of the goals but certainly not all of them. 

Fortunately now I do seem to be on the right track or at least I'm getting there. My goal for volunteer work is to volunteer three hours a week plus holiday event work. I will work up to volunteering more as I get used to the work. Unfortunately I had to call today off because we both have the flu. I don't get too sick with the flu but I'm sure I'm still contagious. I'm going to try to go in Thursday instead. 

I'm also still working on increasing the number of steps I take every day and last week I met my goal of five thousand steps a day. I walked over fifteen miles last week so that feels good. Since I'm sick I haven't decided what my goal for this week should be. I think I'll aim for at least five thousand a day but try for more.  I did step about fifty five hundred yesterday. I should really post this on my pedometer review page but I found it doesn't always record my steps if I'm dancing or stepping too fast so that's irksome but I guess that means I get some extra steps. I'm kind of thinking hopefully by the end of the year I'll have worked up to ten thousand steps a day. That seems fairly reasonable. 

My last current goal is the reason I'm writing this. Last week I mentioned on Facebook how I just seem to have tons and tons of lotion. For whatever reason people always give me lotion which I normally don't use much. Well I decided to actually work my way through it all. Last week I used up about five small sample size things of lotion so it's a good start. I decided to gather up all of my bottles to take a picture so you can see I'm not exaggerating when I say I have a lot. 

 

Of these I think I bought maybe five. The rest were gifts or review items or giveaway winnings. Unfortunately this doesn't even include the bags of individual sample size BB cream and what not I have. Most of those I haven't even tried yet. I know I would definitely purchase the Lubriderm ointment again because it's kind of in a class of its own. The Vaseline lotion I would probably purchase too. 

So after about a week of actually using lotion I think I've become one of those people who uses it obsessively. Go figure. At least I have enough it should last me a good long time. 

Oh and incase anyone is actually wondering yes I did buy the panda just because it's so darn cute. I can't think of the brand right now because I have flu brain fog. But I've used up all of the cream that came in it and refilled it a few times. I love that container and love that it's something so cute and reusable. Get a clue America. :P

I think I'm just rambling now but those are my current thoughts and goals. Let me know about your goals and if you have any suggestions on how to achieve them. Oh and I do want to get back to writing as well but I'm not having much luck. :(

Wet Silence ebook review

I received this item in exchange for an honest review.

It seems like I've gone through such a long phase of only reading fiction and especially paranormal. I still love the genre but I think I'm ready for a break so I have been reading a few other genres with reviews coming up. Today I'll begin with a book of poetry. 

Blurb:

Wet Silence bears moving accounts of Hindu widows in India. The book raises concern about the treatment of widowed women by society; lends their stories a voice; shares their unheard tales about marriage; reveals the heavy hand of patriarchy; and, addresses the lack of companionship and sensuality in their lives. This collection of poems covers a myriad of social evils such as misogyny, infidelity, gender inequality, and celibacy amongst other things. The poems in the collection are bold, unapologetic, and visceral. The collection will haunt you. 

Review: 

I don't normally read poetry and as a newlywed I think it was rather cruel to myself to read this book however I felt it was important to do so. I started reading this just within a few days of getting married and needless to say I was in tears by the end of the first poem. Additionally it was just completely fascinating reading the poems and imagining all of the things these women had to deal with. Husbands who didn't love them but used them for sex or those who cheated on them for years. Or having loving devoted husband but not being able to mourn for him and having to carry on taking care of others. It was definitely interesting seeing things from a different culture perspective. Many of the poems also left me feeling disgusted by the inherit cruelty of humankind. Obviously some things don't matter the culture. It was awful reading about how some of the women were treated but thankfully not all of the poems were sad or spoke of abusive. Plenty spoke of the triumph of love even after death. Many of these poems made me fearful as well because I know someday too my husband shall pass and it will be me alone. There were a few poems I didn't quite understand but in general the imagery is good and the point obvious. This was easy to read and only takes a few hours to do so. Also I will mention there is a glossary at the end of the book which is helpful for some of the unknown words. 

Wet Silence is available on Amazon for $4.95 for the Kindle edition, $14.95 for paperback or $26.95 for hardcover. 

Compendium: Artifacts of Lumin (Audiobook) Review

I received this item in exchange for an honest review.

Today I have another first for this blog: an audio book review. I don't typically listen to audio books, but I found this to be rather enjoyable because I could listen to it while I did my housework or just while resting. Today's review is of Compendium, a book by Alia Luria.

Blurb:
Winner of the 2015 National Indie Excellence Award in Fantasy, silver medal in the 2015 Readers' Book Awards in Fantasy, and a finalist for the Independent Author Network's Book of the Year in the Science Fiction, Fantasy and First Novel categories.

On the heavily forested planet of Lumin, the Network has slept, dormant, for over six hundred cycles. Only a select few remember that it resides beneath the crust of the planet, waiting, and for those who remember, the battle for Lumin’s future has raged in the shadows.

When Mia Jayne’s path crosses with an ancient volume in the Archives of the Order of Vis Firmitas, this ancient battle moves from the shadows into the light. Compendium opens up a world of knowledge, and, for the first time since arriving at the Order, Mia has the key to reclaim the freedom she has lost. To do so, she must choose between her conscience and her heart. Conceived against an ailing world of fantastical beauty where long-lost technology tips the balance between extinction and survival, Mia must remember that there is always a choice, and that makes all the difference.

Review:

It took me a few chapters to really get into this book and to get a proper feel for it. At first I wasn't much interested as it felt like the tired old ideas, and I felt fans of Star Trek or perhaps Star Wars would enjoy this book. It felt rather redundant with many typical scifi themes being repeated.

Once I listened to more of this, I enjoyed it more. Parts of it remind me of Tony Diterlizzi's WondLa, and for whatever reason, the Hunger Games to some extent. There are some very obvious parallels between Compendium and the Harry Potter series, with some similar stereotypes and common themes. Compendium, however, I feel, teaches more important life lessons with real life consequences of our actions.

As a genealogist, the author really hit a nerve when Mia sneezed on Compendium, and with the poor continued abuse of the book. I found myself laughing aloud time and time again and the commentary of Compendium, greatly appreciating it's humor.  It was interesting to hear more about Mia's world and to see how Compendium was used, and it's limitations.

In my opinion, the characters were interesting and well developed and the story well written. The narrator did a good job of bringing the characters to life, although some of the voices of the older characters were just too similar. However, I did enjoy this and I would recommend it for younger readers or listeners.

 This audiobook is available on Audible for $19.95 or free with 30 day membership trial. Or you can get it for $17.46 on Amazon as an audio book, $19.99 for paperback, $2.99 as an ebook or free with Kindle Unlimited.

10,000 Steps a Day to a Better You by Sleekly

I received this item in exchange for an honest review.

I'm constantly working on improving myself and doing everything I can to be healthier. Such a challenge when you have chronic pain and my health history. I know many people recommend taking 10,000 steps a day minimum for better health. I have an old pedometer but I never got it to really work correctly, so when I got the chance to review Sleekly's pedometer, I thought why not? Ten thousand steps amounts to about 5 miles, so that's a lot of walking.

Unfortunately I'm pretty disappointed with my results. I do a lot around the house, so I figured I step a lot more than I actually do. The first day I stepped about 8 thousand steps but I did a lot more walking than usual. The next day was equally pretty busy and I stepped about 5 thousand. From there I seemed to average about 3500 steps a day. Pretty poor results and I was amazed at how much I did while taking so few steps. Obviously I'm going to have to work up to this ten thousand steps a day thing, but it's a good goal for me to work towards, I think. I start working out our local senior center tomorrow, so I'll see how my steps work out with that and from there I will work towards 5 thousand steps a day just as my first goal. I hate having to take things so slowly, but you have to when you have chronic pain. I opted not to record my steps on Sunday because that's the one day of the week where I basically do nothing but rest.

Enough about me, here is my pedometer review.

Blurb:
BRAND NEW DESIGN: We took our customer's feedback and completely redesigned the pedometer adding 3D technology;
MORE ACCURATE, EASIER TO USE, EASIER TO CARRY: The pedometer can now accurately measure your steps no matter how you carry it. We are also including 2 bonus carry straps so you can take it anywhere.
MEASURES STEPS AND STORES INTO MEMORY: Measures the steps you have taken and your walking distance and stores the info into memory so you can track your progress;
MEASURES CALORIES AND DISTANCE IN ENGLISH OR METRIC: Discover how many calories you are burning while you walk; easily toggle between miles or kilometers;
QUIET OPERATION: New 3D technology ensures super accuracy and whisper quiet operation.

Review:
I found the instructions for this pedometer to be very confusing and difficult to understand. It took me awhile to figure out how to use it, and for the most part I ignored the instructions because they weren't much help. I finally figured out that when trying to set the weight it kept going to the 7 day records instead of the pedometer settings so that wasn't much help. I finally got it to go to the settings to enter my weight which I discovered was in kg so I had to figure out the conversion for that first. I'm not really sure what the distance setting range is for but I think I set that to max. This seemed very inaccurate until I got the weight set correctly. It still misses a few steps every once in awhile or gives me too many but it seems fairly accurate overall.

Once I got everything set up, it was smooth sailing from there. I just put the pedometer in my pocket and started walking. It also comes with a ribbon for stringing the pedometer around your neck, and I opted to tie that to the smaller one just for added length.

I would suggest the only way to improve this product is to make the instructions more clear. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it.

This pedometer is $14.95 on Amazon and is available for free shipping on orders over $35.

Waves of Passion ebook review

I received this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I have one last book review for you today - whew that's a lot of book reviews today :) This one is Waves of Passion by Lori Ann Mitchell. I read the first of her books in this series back in March and you can see my review of it here.

Blurb:
Can Love survive a long distance relationship?
A contemporary romance unlike any other!
Just when Sage and Derek are getting serious about their relationship, change sweeps through the tiny little town of Seaside, Florida. Derek is offered a "visiting writing professor" position at a small college in Southern California that will take him away from Sage for the next five months. Though both agree it's an opportunity Derek can't pass up, being apart takes its toll on both of them. When Sage kisses another man in a moment of weakness, she pledges to tell Derek the truth”"if only she can get him out of the arms of the sexy visiting professor living across the hall in his dorms! 

Review:
I read the first book in this series, but not the second one. Even so, I didn't feel like I was missing much by reading Waves of Passion while skipping Waves of Romance. This book is very short, and I read it in just a few hours. The writing itself is good, but this is definitely a fluff novel. Lots of sex, unrealistic relationship situations, without much substance. So if that's your thing, you'll probably enjoy this. If you want something with more deeper meaning I suggest you skip this.

Waves of Passion is available from Amazon for $3.99 or free with Amazon Unlimited.

Water's Blood e-book review

I received one of these items in exchange for an honest review.

I have a very long list of books to review over the next few weeks so today I'm going to get started with Water's Blood by Elaine Calloway.

Blurb:

Water's Blood is a paranormal fantasy romance set in New Orleans, and is part of an elemental series whose theme is good vs evil. The book blurb is below:

In the Elemental world, there is a rule: Never mate with humans. 

But for Brooke, a Water Elemental stationed in New Orleans, following the rules can be tricky. She's spent countless millennia protecting the innocent from the evil fallen angels, who reap human souls and force them
to do their bidding.

Keeping her supernatural powers hidden--another rule--has begun to take its toll. When she meets Alex, an intuitive police officer with the NOPD, all bets are off. Not only does she fall in love with him, but she
conceives a half-breed child, Ella.

Universe, ruler of the Elemental World, is furious. For her indiscretion, Brooke is forbidden to share a life with Alex, the love of her life. Even worse, she cannot reveal her true identity to her own daughter.

When Brooke learns that the fallen angels plan to snare Ella's soul by Halloween, she is hurled into a war between good and evil. Brooke broke the rules once by allowing love to interfere with her mission. Now she and Alex must put consequences aside to break the rules again--if they wish to save their
daughter's soul.

Review:
 Water's Blood takes place in New Orleans, which seems to be kind of a stereotype setting for paranormal writing. It's also the home town of the author so that point I can forgive her, but there are many other cliches throughout this book which have just grown tiresome. The idea of elementals, good versus bad is nothing new. The names of the characters I found to be completely unoriginal. While I understand the reasons behind some of the names, I wish more creativity had been used (Alex means protector, for example.) There's also quite a few naming conventions I'm not really certain why she chose those but I'm hoping more will be revealed through the series. The two antagonists have names which were also Saints, so for Fallen Angels to share names with saints... I'm no fan of Catholicism but as a Christian this borders on going too far for me. The use of the name Cristos made the character's role in this book fairly predictable but again it's also treading that fine line for me.

All of that aside, I did really enjoy this book. The writing is good, the story being well written and other than the above issues it is quite creative. I wasn't familiar with this author before hand but now I do intend to read more of the series in the future.

Water's Blood is available on Amazon for free on Kindle. It is also available in paperback for $13.

Bonus
I decided to look at Calloway's Amazon page to check for any freebies while I was thinking of it and I found two in this series. The first is Droplet, the prequel to Water's Blood.

Blurb:
Droplet is a short story prequel to Water's Blood that tells how Brooke became a Water Elemental, the training she received, and all things leading up to the day she would meet the human who would change her life forever.

Review: This is short enough that it can be read in about five minutes. It gives us an inside view as to how Brooke was created, and how her life began. It's short enough that I feel this would have been best added on to Water's Blood as a prequel and not a separate book. It is available for free on Amazon.

Blurb:
IGNITE is a prequel short story to the full-length novel RAGING FIRE by Elaine Calloway. Here we meet Phoenix, the hot-tempered Fire Elemental, when he is living the fat cat life on Wall Street. Everything is hunky-dory, but Universe is about to change things so Phoenix will be forced to face his deepest fears. 

Review:
 I read this in a matter of minutes. It's a quick insight into the mind of Phoenix and gives us an unexpected glance at the future of what might be in store for him in Raging Fire. I would have expected this to be included either at the end of Water's Blood and or at the beginning of Raging Fire, not as a separate book. Ignite is available for free on Amazon.

I have one last short story from Calloway to review today. This one is separate from the Elemental Clan series. The cover really creeps me out because the photo could be of myself if it weren't for the witch nose :P But seriously, I've even taken pictures of myself at this angle and it looks like me. Weird. Guess I found my twin, who ever this person is.

Blurb:

Vampires Wanted...
If only the audition casting call had said those two words. They didn’t. How was I supposed to know there was a vampire in the city? Even though New Orleans has its haunted myths and legends, I could never have known what awaited me when I rang the bell to that Victorian gate.
His name was Andrew, and he offered me the chance to leave my monotonous day job and become like him---a vampire. My instincts told me the offer was too good to be true. Hell, even Andrew warned me. Told me I needed to be careful what I wished for.
I couldn’t help myself. I needed that passion, that vampire lust that the undead have for everything around them. Even if it meant making a choice that I would soon regret. Andrew called the oath a vampire vow, whatever that means. And for a while, every sense was heightened, every color vibrant.
If only I’d listened to him. Always be careful what you wish for.

Be Careful What You Wish For is a vampire short story set in New Orleans. Elaine Calloway writes paranormal romance, paranormal fantasy, and ghost stories set in iconic cities. After growing tired of the overabundance of vampires in fiction, she decided to take a new approach with this short story. In addition to short fiction, she is writing The Elemental Clan Series, a good versus evil set of tales between Elementals and Fallen Angels.

Review: This is very short; I think I read it in under half an hour. Be Careful What You Wish For is short but fun and entertaining. The story is creative with a quite different look at the life and nature of vampires. I really enjoyed it and I will recommend it to any fans of paranormal stories, especially vampires.

Be Careful What You Wish For is available from Amazon for free.