Saturday, January 31, 2015

A list of all my book reviews

Here is a list of my book reviews as I do them, starting with this introductory post of announcing that I'm doing book reviews. The most recent reviews are closest to the top. The further you scroll down, the older the reviews will be.






Review
Review
Review
Coming Soon

Review
Review
Review
Review

Review
Review
Review
Review




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A list of all mybeauty, makeup and health posts


Makeup
30 January 2015:I can't get Mac Studio Fix Powder Foundation to work for me
26 January 2015: Illamasqua makeup collection
22 April 2014: Staying shine free ... a new foundation and primer combo
1 January 2014: Makeup no buy / low buy 2014 ... reigning in my makeup addiction
25 July 2013: Feeding my foundation fixation with Findation - color matching without testing
3 July 2013: How I color match foundation at the drugstore


Beauty
5 May 2014: Continuing to use the Clarisonic and its results
20 March 2014: How your brain and words affect your sense of smell
8 June 2013: My experience with the Clarisonic Mia - initial reaction and breakouts


Health and diet
30 June 2014: Moving and stress is bad for the diet
19 February 2014: Having trouble getting back into it
11 February 2014: Juicing for life, for health, for breakfast
27 January 2014: Back to the diet ...
11 December 2013: There's a lot of eating ahead ... my strategy to stick to the diet
21 November 2013: A 300 calorie day ... what !?!?!
31 October 2013: Portion control is really important
27 October 2013: Progress is slow, but I keep going
27 August 2013: An update on Plexus Slim, a continuing weight loss journey
1 August 2013: Weekend naughtiness, counting the cost and paying the price
11 July 2013: Some progress and holy frack! that's a lot of calories
27 June 2013: Dieting sucks but I press on
20 June 2013: Getting serious about weight loss, calorie counting and a small Plexus Slim update
12 June 2013: Plexus Slim experience - my first 16 days of taking Plexus Slim


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Friday, January 30, 2015

I can't get Mac Studio Fix Powder Foundation to work for me



While I'm doing book reviews and other booky stuff, every now and then I like to throw in a non-book related post since this is Deanna's World and my world is much bigger than just books and this did start out as a makeup blog. :-) That said ...

Mac Studio Fix and I are not friends. Really, I've tried but we just can't seem to get along.

I have read reviews and watched Youtube videos about it and because of the hype surrounding it, decided to try it out. I have also watched numerous tutorials on how to make it work for you and for it to look great and none of the things I've tried have worked for me.

First off, I don't know why people keep saying it has great coverage. It doesn't for me and I've used a fluffy brush and a dense powder brush with it. The only thing I haven't tried is packing it on with the sponge that comes with it. Perhaps, that should be my next move.

Then, there's the fact that it just does not seem to like to apply well on my skin. I've tried it on bare skin after moisturizer and got barely there coverage. I've tried it with a BB cream as a base and it seemed to do okay but looked really cakey, although I have to say this time the coverage seemed pretty good though I still did not like the way it looked. Finally, I tried it with a primer and I have to say this seemed to have worked the best. I guess I just need to make sure I have a primer on before putting the powder on.

As to the finish, I find it very powdery and cakey looking. I watched a video by gossmakeupartist
talk about making it look like skin by spraying a makeup setting spray or something like Mac Fix Plus on it, but that didn't really work as well for me as I would have liked, though it did seem to help a bit. I have also tried dusting a thing layer of Mac Mineralized Skin Finish Natural on it and that seems to be the best result that I am getting.


After all that, am I going to keep trying with the product or am I going to chuck it out?

Well, I can't bring myself to chuck it out because that thing is bloody expensive and I paid a lot of money for it. It just seems like such a waste, so I think I will probably persevere with it.

I think the best technique I have found to work with it is to apply primer first, then buff it into the skin with a powder brush (like the Elf powder brush) and then apply a light dusting of Mac Mineralized Skin Finish Natural over it with a fluffy powder brush. It's not ideal, but that seems to be the best I can do with it.


I have yet to try the sponge that comes with it and perhaps I will. I'm going out tonight for dinner so I might try it then and see how it goes. Maybe, I will love with with the sponge. Who knows?!?

Do you have a product that just does not seem to want to cooperate with you but because you've paid a lot of money for it, you just want to try to make it work? Tell me about it in the comments below!

UPDATE: I've applied the Mac Studio Fix Powder with the sponge it came with, on top of a primer, then set it with the Mac Mineralized Skin Finish Natural. It looks decent enough but very powdery and slightly cakey looking but it's the best I've had in terms of application of it. I've included a photo I took of how I look with it on (no filter). You can see where a lot of the pigmentation on my cheek is still peeking through. I'm going to say this gives me light to medium coverage. I'm also not digging the powdery look although that doesn't come across as much with the photo. What do you think?



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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Review: The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance by Trisha Telep


The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance
The Mammoth Book of Time Travel Romance by Trisha Telep
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

Twenty tales of swashbuckling adventure and passionate romance from some of the most exciting names in romance fiction, including Margo Maguire, Autumn Daw, Sandy Blair, Michele Maddox, Patti O'Shea, Holly Lisle, Kimberly Raye, and Madeline Baker.

Join the heroines in this delightful anthology as they step backwards - or forwards - in time, transported to the Scottish Highlands or yesteryear, the Wild West, or the distant future. Propelled through time into situations rich with possibility and fraught with danger, these sexy, sassy heroines each seek their dreamed of happy ending.

Will souls separated by time be reunited - or kept apart - forever?

I really enjoyed this collection of stories. They have been great for when I was short of time but wanted something quick and complete to read, and they were also perfect for times when I was waiting on an appointment or for the train.

The stories were all well written and well edited, although for some of the stories, the eBook formatting was a little off and some words ran into each other - not too much of a problem as I was able to figure out the words.

As to the stories themselves, I enjoyed all of them, perhaps some more than others.

They were also great introductions to authors that I had not read previously and there are a few that I might go check out from having read their work here.

I can't review each story individually since it has taken me well over a year, perhaps even two to get through the entire collection, so the earlier stories have faded from my memory, but lots of Highlanders and hunky Scots - they seem to lend themselves to time travel stories well. I'm definitely planning on reading other "mammoth books" by Trisha Telep.

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Monday, January 26, 2015

Illamasqua makeup collection

I've decided that I really should feature my videos from the YouTube channel on the blog as well as this will provide some variety to the blog and truly encompass the name of both the blog and the YT channel, Deanna's World.

My latest video talks about my Illamasqua collection. I love Illamasqua products. I find them to be super high quality and very luxurious.


Of course, they are also rather expensive and being based in the UK with the Pound Sterling so strong right now, it's a spendy piece of makeup to acquire.I usually buy my Illamasqua makeup when they have a sale on.

My two favorite items from the lines are the powder foundation (I love the coverage, it's amazing!) and their blushes. I have two of their powder foundations, one in my skintone shade and one darker that I use to contour. I love them both. I also have 4 of their powder blushes and I'm constantly stalking their website to see if there are more blushes that I don't own to add to my collection.

I won't keep going on, but I'll let you watch the video to see what I have. I've even done some swatches!



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Review: Justice by Laurann Dohner


Justice
Justice by Laurann Dohner
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

Justice North is the face of New Species. Seeing him up close makes Jessie's heart race. He's the ultimate alpha male-big, muscular, exotically beautiful...and dangerous. Of course he's off limits. But then the sexy man purrs and all bets are off.

Jessie Dupree is a mouthy, fiery human female who brings out the animal in Justice. She wants to show him how to relax, and he's all for anything she wants to do, but Justice has sworn to protect his people and to take a Species mate. He's torn between the woman he wants and the oath he's taken.

Jessie knows a relationship between them probably won't end well; heartbreak is inevitable. But that won't stop her from freeing the wildness inside Justice and spending every moment she can steal wrapped around his hot body, making him roar with passion.

Reader Advisory: Each New Species book may be read as a standalone, but we suggest reading them in order to get the most enjoyment from the series.

I guess I will start by saying that I love the New Species series by Laurann Dohner, and I love her Species males and females.

This particular story is about Justice, the leader of the New Species and Jessie, a human. Right from the start Justice is strongly attracted to Jessie and her to him (of course!) but Justice resists the attraction and the relationship because of the potential repercussions of what him being such a public figure will do to her and her life, from the politics to the hate groups, etc. Jessie is stubborn and says it doesn't matter, that she's okay with a secret relationship as long as they can be together, but then changes her mind after only a few days of them being together. This is where the story goes off the rails for me.

I can't stand female lead characters that are stupid and fickle, and Jessie's behavior no matter her justification in her own mind was both of that for me. I think she could have approached it a lot better instead of being stupid and stubborn about it, and refusing Justice's numerous attempts to talk to her about the situation. I get that all of that is meant to create conflict in order to progress the story and head to the happy ending for Justice and Jessie, but from about 68% of the book to about 89% of the book, all I really wanted to do was hit Jessie across the head with a very large stick and tell her to get over herself. I found Jessie to be immature and self absorbed, which made her very unlikable to me, even though she did redeem herself and was kick ass tough when she took down the bad guys and protecting Justice.

Justice, on the other hand, I love. He has such a burden placed on him by the role he plays for his people and he's trying to do the right thing. He's strong and dominant but at the same time sweet and tender towards Jessie. That's what I love about all of Laurann Dohner's New Species males, they are uber alpha males and very, very dominant but they love and treat their women with such tenderness. I want to say that Justice deserved better and more understanding from Jessie and it took an attack on them and something happening to Justice to understand the meaning of what he was trying to tell her about their relationship, but he wanted her, so I just have to roll with that.

I was going to give the book 2 stars when I was seriously pissed off at Jessie, but since she redeemed herself towards the end (it still didn't make me like her though, just that I disliked her less) and I love Justice, it's getting 3 stars from me.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Review: Grand Slam by Lily Harlem and Lucy Felthouse


Grand Slam
Grand Slam by Lucy Felthouse
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

California had seduced me with promises of a new life working at Los Carlos Tennis Academy. What I didn’t expect was the dark, brooding number one seed, Travis Connolly, resisting my help. He wasn’t interested in my psychology skills. Instead his attention was drawn to the edgy, sharper corners of my desires, proving that they existed, setting me challenges and driving me crazy to the point of combustion.

I’m the best tennis player in the world—officially—so why would I need a damn woman full of psychobabble to get me on form? Despite my irritation, however, I can't resist pushing Marie Sherratt’s buttons even though doing that shows her the darkest shades of my lust, the parts of me I buried deep. So I set her a challenge, one she rises to, one that has me rising too, and before long my game relies on her calling the shots, hitting the target and bending to my will. One thing was certain, being not just master of the court, but also of Marie is seriously good for my soul.

In honor of the Australian Open being on right now, I thought that it is time for me to write a review of Grand Slam. I've, of course, already done a video review of the book which you can watch here:


It is not often that I give a book a 5 star rating. Perhaps 2 or 3 a year, 4 or 5 at most. I'm a tough scorer!

The thing I liked about Grand Slam was that it explored the BDSM world without being overwhelming and Lily managed to make it sexy and tasteful, and perhaps even something I might want to explore with the right partner - that right there is powerful writing. Of course, that's just a fancy of mine and not something that I will actually do, but reading this did make me entertain the thought.

I enjoyed the dynamics between Travis and Marie. His attraction to her, his dominance, and her submission. The whole sexual aspect of their relationship was so well done, and there were just lots of sexy times in the book.

I won't repeat the other things I've said about this book that I've mentioned in the video, but I want to focus on the tennis. I love tennis and it is one of my favorite games to watch either live or on TV. I don't actually watch any other sport. This book brought to life a very private side of a world class tennis player for me and it certainly changed the way I looked at the game when I watch Federer or Nadal play. :-) There's just all sorts of sexiness that I imagine now when I watch tennis.

On top of that, I enjoyed Lily's descriptions of the game, the psychology of a top tennis player and what goes into prepping for a game. I'm sure that real top tennis players perhaps don't prep quite the way Travis does, but then you never know ...

I highly recommend this book.

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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Review: Bite Mark by Lily Harlem


Bite Mark
Bite Mark by Lily Harlem
Purchase link: Amazon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Heat rating:

Life in London as a butcher girl is hard enough, but when my best friend Denny goes missing without a trace it becomes miserable. So finding clues to his whereabouts and then stumbling one foggy morning into the Worshipful Company of the Ancient Order is like a breath of fresh air. Not least because sexy sophisticated Aimery has promised to help me when no one else will.

But Aimery has a best friend and it seems Ryle wants in on the action. My head begins to spin, my body reacting to theirs whenever I'm around them. But there are questions I need answering. What is their obsession with my rare blood type? How do they always appear just when I need them? And exactly how old are they?

Learning the truth about my lovers brings new fears and delights. They take me higher than I’ve ever gone before, show me delights I never imagined existed and are prepared to kill to keep me safe. Being mortal has never been so much fun, or so deliciously dangerous.

Please note, Bite Mark ends on a cliff hanger and has a sequel, Claw Mark.
Lily Harlem surprises me with her versatility in a very good way, from soccer to tennis, and fairy tales to vampires. This book was full of surprises for me, from her choice of heroine - a butcher girl! to the two sexy vampires that she attracts with her very peculiar blood type.

Of course, the sexy scenes are super sexy, so be warned! but the story itself is delightful too with a little bit of suspense and a (very) slight cliffhanger at the end. Don't worry, the cliffhanger won't leave you cranky and frustrated, besides the second book it out already so you don't have to wait at all! I can't wait to get stuck into it!

In general, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Lily is a go to author for me when it comes to sexy, erotic romances and she never disappoints.

You can find my review of Claw Mark here.

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Monday, January 19, 2015

I've started doing book reviews



Hi there, long time no blog. Sorry about that but there have been several reasons for that. If you follow me on my YouTube channel you will know that life has undergone some changes recently for me and so my focus has changed somewhat. It has meant that the content for my channel has changed and hence, content for the blog has lagged.

You can find out more about the changes here:


And because of those changes, I've started doing book reviews.

I have decided to post the book reviews that I do on Goodreads here on this blog as well. I'm not sure if I will also post the video book reviews as well, but we shall see. Right now, there are several that I've done and I will link them.

Here's the video talking about book reviews that I will be doing:



And from that video, here are the first few of my book reviews, starting with:

Scored by Lily Harlem




Grand Slam by Lily Harlem & Lucy Felthouse




Perilous Risk by Natasha Blackthorne




I hope you enjoy them and continue along this new journey as I talk books and provide reviews of the books I've read. 

The video book reviews will be less frequent and there probably will be more book reviews via Goodreads. I am hoping that I will be able to consistently post at least one a month.


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