Life, Tea, and Everything

Review: The Lady Takes It All by Terri Brisbin

The Lady Takes It All by Terri Brisbin is the first book in her new series Unexpected Heirs of Scotland and is a wonderful start to the series.

Joshua Robertson is a former diplomat and explorer who partnered with the wrong person. His reputation practically in ruins, he unexpectedly inherits the viscountcy of Dunalastair, quieting the rumours but making him an outcast throughout most of society.

Arabella MacGibbon is the daughter of his former partner, and up until his death, her father cast aspersions on Joshua, making out that Joshua cheated him out of his share of a fortune. Arabella is determined to get revenge for her father and manages to get herself hired as Joshua’s housekeeper using the alias Mrs. Clara Lewis. In so doing, she unwittingly leads danger to the viscount’s door.

From the beginning there was sufficient intrigue to capture my attention, and I found it difficult to put the book down. Both Joshua and Arabella came off as intelligent, level headed people. I appreciated that while Arabella was in the viscount’s home to seek revenge, she didn’t let her preconceived notions of him blind her to his true nature.

The book had an interesting cast of side character, I was especially amused by the viscount’s butler, Pottles and his indignation any time Joshua didn’t act as he thought a viscount should, or when he thought his authority was being undermined.

The Lady Takes it all was a very enjoyable read with witty dialogue, a bit of intrigue and action, and a few steamy scenes. I was captivated by the storytelling and I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

The Lady Takes it All releases on January 13 2023 and is published by Dragonblade Publishing.

Review: The Masquerade of the Marchioness by Claire Delacroix

The Masquerade of the Marchioness by Claire Delacroix

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Masquerade of the Marchioness is the 2nd book in Claire Delacroix’s new regency series The Ladies’ Essential Guide to the Art of Seduction. Although the book is a part of a series, it can easily be read as a standalone.

Penelope has been masquerading as her deceased sister, Philomena for the past three years, only able to hide it from Philomena’s husband because he has been absent for almost the entire time.

Garrett finally comes home for an extended period and immediately suspects his wife is not the same woman he married. Before Penelope can make her planned confession, or Garret can confront her, a jewel thief hits London and misunderstandings and misconceptions get in the way.

With the introduction of a villain The Masquerade of the Marchioness is a little darker, and serious in tone than the first book in the series which was a bit more comical (although this book did have a few comical moments) and did not have as much action as this book.

I was worried how the author would explain the fact that no one noticed Penelope had taken her sister’s place for three years without questioning or suspecting anything. Yes, they were identical twins, but they had completely different personalities. I’m happy to say this was dealt with in a manner that satisfied me, so I was able to fully enjoy the story.

The Masquerade of the Marchioness was a fantastic addition to the series and was difficult to put down. I’m looking forward to the next book in this series as there were a few open ended threads at the end of the book. I hope the author resolves them in future books.

To find out where to buy it or to learn more about the book, check here on the author’s website:

View all my reviews

General Blog Update

My apologies to anyone who received notifications from any old posts today. I’m pretty sure at least one went out today after I accidentally trashed a post and had to republish it while I was trying to recategorize and organize things. I didn’t think to see if I could stop notifications from going out until after I published, I hope it didn’t annoy anyone too much.

As I mentioned, I did a relatively big update today to reorganize my posts into separate sections so that they’re easier to find. I’m hoping to get back to writing more blog posts, not just the weight loss ones. so I’ve now organized things into Books, Crafts and Hobbies, and Life, Tea and Other Things.

The Books area will be for book reviews and other bookish things. I’ve been reading a lot of books and attempting to write more reviews over the past year and now I think it’s time to take the leap to add more of them to my blog. I have a few (very few) reviews there already but I hope to expand on that.

Crafts and Hobbies will be for pretty much what it says, all kinds of crafts and other hobbies from fiber crafts to papercrafts, drawing to painting, and lots of other things in between. I’ve started a few new hobbies over the past few years so watch for some of those to pop up.

And finally, Life, Tea, and Other Things will be where my weight loss update posts go, along with posts about my furkids, tea and anything that doesn’t fit either of the other areas.

I’ve been wanting to do a big update for quite a while now, but just never found the time. Today was my first day of vacation, so I figured it was a great time to finally tackle the job! I’m pretty pleased. I had changed the theme of the site a while back when I started documenting my latest weight loss attempt, but I didn’t finish all the updates I wanted to do. I still may have to change some things, we’ll see how it goes.

Here’s hoping I’m not biting off more than I can chew with my big plans.

My Weight Loss Journey – Week 28

I’m posting a little bit early, because I have another post coming tomorrow morning, and I don’t want to post everything in one day this week!

Great news! I am almost halfway to my ultimate goal, and I passed one of my mini personal goals this week! I lost 4.1 pounds for a total now of 61.9 altogether! I was so shocked, because I really didn’t have a great week last week. I had a headache for about 4 days straight, and although I was eating within my points range, I don’t think I was making the best choices. I also lost another point, so I’m down to 32 daily points, it’s getting much easier to hit my daily target!

I tried a new recipe for mushrooms that my aunt shared on Facebook. I love mushrooms, so it was a must try for me! Now mine do not look as juicy as the ones pictured with the recipe, but they were just as tasty trust me. You can find the recipe here.

Balsamic Mushrooms

I adjusted the recipe to make it suitable for one, as usual. I only used about 1/2 lb of mushrooms, and cut the remaining ingredients in half. I didn’t have any thyme, so I omitted that. Even with my changes, the mushrooms were delicious, I recommend giving it a try! I served with chicken breast with lemon pepper, and brown rice cooked in mushroom broth.

I hope you’re having a good start to the week! Do you like mushrooms? Do you have a favourite? I saw a blog post about mushrooms on another blog this week, and it has made me realize that I need to try more types.

My Weight Loss Journey V2 – Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6

Life (well mostly work) has been busy for the past few weeks so I’m way behind with my updates, but still trying to stay on track. Some days have been better than others as you’ll see below.

Week 3

I fell a little off track this week. I didn’t feel well on Friday, had to cancel some plans to go out to meet friends for a play and ended up ordering in dinner because I didn’t want to cook. I chose a fairly healthy dinner, but I went a bit overboard on the rice, and pita bread. I have to tell you though, that the pita bread was so delicious; baked goods really are my downfall.

I tried to get back on track for the remainder of the weekend so even though the scale didn’t reflect it, I will still call my week a win, after all I’m back to trying to treat this as a lifestyle change, not a diet. Minor setbacks will happen on occasion, even once I’m at goal, so it’s best not to dwell on the negatives, but just to move on from them.

My little setback had me gaining 1.2 pounds on my third week back on the WW program, but it’s not the end of the world.

Week 4

Week 4 and I was back to tracking consistently, and making healthy choices, and the scale showed it in a small way with a 0.8-pound loss. Every little win adds up to success, and I tell myself that all the time. I see a lot of people discouraged when they don’t lose huge amounts all at once or gain a little bit. It’s easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal, which is learning to make better choices, and get healthier.

Week 5

This week I had another small gain of 0.6 pounds. I have a feeling this time around is going to be a bit more of a rollercoaster, or maybe it’s because of the time of year that I’m starting. I find it a lot more difficult to stay on track in the fall during the holiday season, but if I’m trying, I’m at least not still just continuing to gain weight so even if the loss is small over all during this period, I’m still closer to my ultimate goal.

Week 6

This will catch me up to the current week as my weigh in day was Monday. I had another loss of 1.1 pounds, so that felt good. Unfortunately, after weigh in day I may have indulged a bit too much after a few stressful workdays, I guess I’ll find out on Monday.

I’m still keeping positive and trying to plan better for those stressful days so that I’m not tempted to make poor choices. I’m a work in progress.