Friday Updates

So, another week another dollar (or two). It was a short week for me being a holiday Monday, but it was a loooong week. Not sure why it dragged. Maybe the weather which is more England-like than Canada-like. Rain and cool and I'm tired of it. Really.

Tuesday my excitement was I took my bunny to the vet. He has been coughing (maybe sneezing? hard to tell) for a while, but on the weekend he would have a fit where he couldn't seem to stop for a few minutes and would stand on his hind legs as if it helped him catch his breath. (I'm inserting human reactions here.) He has not been to the vet in nine years since *whispers* "the surgery". He's about 9.5 years old and not very many bunnies make it to 11 or 12. So he's a senior, but apart from his cough, he is very healthy and weighs 1.19 kg which is about 2 lbs. The vet said it COULD be some kind of bacterial infection that is getting stronger or as he ages has reared it's head so he gave me some medicine for 10 days and they'll call me and see how he is. If he's no better we could do x-rays and see if there is anything more.

So I brought him home and ... he coughed once all evening. LOL I said I should have merely taken him for a car ride and bought $120 shoes. I might have had the same effect. I was worried how I would get medicine down a rabbit, but he loves it. I just put the syringe in his mouth and he laps it right up. Perhaps it's carrot flavoured. He's not had any coughing fits since the vet and the meds, but we're only home a few hours a night so we'll see on the weekend if he has any more or if it's helping. He's eating fine and jumping out of his cage (or trying) on occasion so unless he appears "sick" I don't want to spend big bucks to find out he's just "old".

Anyway, that was my excitement. And tomorrow is my kiddo's 16th birthday. I can't believe it. Ack. When did I get so old? She going out to dinner at a burger place with 8 friends and that's about it. I may try and clean up our house a bit in case they decide to come back after. At least vacuum. LOL So I won't even have dinner with my kid on her birthday. Sigh. I'm leaving her with her friends, because seriously, who wants your mom at dinner with you. :-) We'll go out another night. I have to stop and pick up her gift after work tonight. When did buying a gift for your kid get so hard? I kind of yearn for the days of Barbies and My Little Pony. Now the stuff she wants like a car (hahahahahaha riiiiight) are a bit out of my range.

On with the books. Seems to have been a Sean Michael week.

Playing with Fire by Sean Michael (156 pages)

Torquere Press

This is a fantasy which start with sorcerer/ruler Zujan can control fire and has many fire fairies that do his bidding. He also has a lovely harem of young men. At a party, he is insulted by uppity prince Wintras, and basically says he has to stay for a year or he'll kill his parents. Wintras is pissed, and decides he'd rather starve than comply, and nearly does. However eventually he agrees that he'll submit. Everyone seems to like Zujan and Wintras doesn't get it. How could they not want to be free and go home? He's basically a pain in the butt, until upsetting Zujan so badly he burns down part of his castle and sends Wintras home. A couple of years later, Wintras has managed to gather the neighbouring kingdoms and defeat Zujan and he's determined to take his revenge. Only Zujan is nearly dead, drained by the fire fairies and encased in ice. Just to be contrary, Wintras rescues him and when he finally thaws him out, he's not the same man which confuses him. Okay, Wintras was a typical arrogant 19 year old who knows how it all should be. Zujan took in people whose families had died and gave them a home and a job, but Wintras thought they should all go if they want. Go home. To what? It took him FINALLY getting stuck with Zujan, to really understand he wasn't that bad, and that his people weren't suffering all that much. Zujan is night and day once he thaws, he's more like an innocent child than an evil sorcerer, and you get to know the whole magical back story. It was interesting and for a fantasy I enjoyed it. The world is pretty typical of most castles and magic stories so you don't have to stretch to imagine it. I slid in quite easily. Now if you like your heroes to only be with each other (sorry Kassa - rampant sex ahead) that's not the case. In fact Zujan and Wintras don't have much beyond some oral sex until the second time they are together (and even then there was always another party involved), however he has sex with his harem, Wintras has sex with the harem, the harem have sex with each other and even a third is invited to their bed after they finally get down to it. So if that kind of casual sex thing makes you crazy, this might not be for you, but it seemed to fit the feel and it's a harem for god's sake. What else would they do? :-) I enjoyed the story though.

Keeping House

Breathless Press

Mischa is the youngest wild-child son of a Hollywood media company family, including famous parents. He lives off his trust fund and his brothers bet him he can't find a job and live for a year without using his trust fund. He's pissed and takes them on. Unfortunately his last chance at a job, as he's evicted and his Porche repossessed, is as a housekeeper for Donovan, an ad agency exec. He's instantly attracted but figures he'll scare Mischa off with the tasks, but he agrees and moves in. He's amazing at using the net to figure things out like laundry and cooking, and two of his remaining friends (once he was broke, all his Hollywood hangers-on deserted him) help as well, and Donovan falls in love. That's the end of day 2. I thought this had a lot of potential. I could see a young punk who's never had a job screwing up, and Donovan was quite funny at first. But within three days they were "partners", deeply in love and facing off against the brothers, who only thought Donovan was after Mischa's money. Oh and there was some twincest-lite thrown in for titillation (Mischa's friends). So I liked the concept, but I thought once it got to the part where he took over the housekeeper, it just raced ahead to a HEA within days, and within months baby came home. Hello? So ultimately it didn't deliver what I hoped would be some amusing scenes of two opposites learning to live together, because the excerpt sucked me in and I liked the style. Not bad, but as good as I thought it could have been.

Sold by Sean Michael (210 pages)
Torquere Press

Another Hammer novel. No, I can't stop. Matt is new in town and is being "tested" to join the Hammer club. Adam is a professional sub. He does demonstrations, scenes with people for cash and works for the club trying out new doms to see if they fit. He's very remote and centered and does his job. However instantly Matt doesn't want to be a client, but wants to date Matt who doesn't date or kiss, ever. But strangely he agrees and they start seeing each other. Matt is not thrilled with the idea that Adam goes on scenes with others, but he learns to live with it. Adam also has the habit of not taking care of himself. He's very thin, rarely eats, exercises 20 hours a week, I think you see where this is heading. Anyway, Matt more or less takes over, and things are going okay. After a scene he takes care of Adam as most doms just send him on his way, which is difficult, however apparently he never has sex with clients (although why he had to be clean "inside" and out then I didn't get, but whatever). Things are going okay until one of his clients gets really pissed when he wouldn't reply (Matt makes him take days off and Adam just can't say no) and I could see this coming a mile away, he goes on a scene with angry man and gets very badly beaten. Now what do they do? This is pretty typical of the Hammer books. I really liked Matt though, he tried to accept that it was Adam's job, and not be jealous. Anyway, in the end after Matt gets Adam to give up some of his steely reserve and even allows Matt to take care of his health, they find a solution to their problem of Adam's job. It was okay, some inconsistencies, but not much about the club for fans who hope to see more past characters, only Marcus a bit and I never did find out what they did to the guy who beat Adam. I want to know. LOL It was "taken care of". Those who like the Hammer books with lots of sex (most of it very much on the lite side of BDSM if at all) will enjoy it.