Sloughing The Skin by Dr. Sonja Strode

I was provided and advanced reader copy of this from netgalley.com and the publisher for an honest review.  This book was very well written; almost too well written.  It contained a lot of details that didn't feel especially relevant to the story.  When reading you feel you are in the main character's mind, for most of the book.  That is all well and good but then you are privy to every random thought and every minute detail of the remodeling/rehabilitation of their cottage. Some of the details were relevant to the story and others were not.   There was also no real excitement to the revelation of the secrets that were being kept by the neighbors.  I would have like to see the main character a little more involved and a little more suspense.  I did,  however, enjoy the descriptions of the countryside and so forth that the author gave.


(Stitchy updates coming soon!)

Gone But Knot Forgotten by Mary Marks

I was provided an advanced reader's copy of this book via Netgalley. This was a sweet but serious cozy mystery, not too fluffy but not too graphic either.  Martha Rose is saddened and shocked when she finds out an old(very rich) friend of hers has passed away, and made her the executor of her estate.  Martha finds the manner of her friend's death suspicious, and many questions start arising as she goes through the estate, questions that may even put her in danger.  This was a fun but page-turning read, with a cast of quirky but real characters that kept me entertained throughout.  This is a book in a series and I plan to read the others now!

A little stitching..

I had a busy weekend-dd had a friend come in from out of town to stay with us for a while- had to make a trip to the airport, did a little lunch, a little shopping while in the "big city."   Yesterday was church, grocery shopping... and when we were getting ready to leave the grocery store a lady gave dd some coupons for Bath and Body Works that expired that day.. one for a free item.. so later we made a trip to the mall.  I don't think I did any stitching yesterday.  

I did get a few stitches in today on "Chowning's Tavern"  on my lunch break; I am hoping to work on it again in a little while.  This is what I have done so far.

I'm almost done with "It's Winter Time" by Maryse- just have the border to do and a little backstitching.

Actually I do have a little more done than this- the word "time" and a little bit of the border around the white border.

I have a new addiction- (like I needed another one)- found out about this app from Japan, "Neko Atsume"- and basically you leave food and toys out for cats and they come visit you and leave you silver and gold sardines. Which you use to buy more food and toys for the cats. ☺ I like it cause it is low maintenance.. in fact if you wait a while, or even overnight for instance, you check it in the morning and there are all kinds of sardines the cats left- you collect them though from a part of the app- they don't leave them strewn all over the place. ha ha.  The app is really cute and surprisingly fun.  Here is a screenshot.

And as you keep using the app, "rare" cats pop up here and there- like this baseball cat-

Yes, I am easily entertained. ☺ Just a kid at heart I guess. As you can see in the above photo I needed to fill their food. Not many cats show up if there isn't food out.  Anyway, just something a little fun I thought I'd share.  If you by some chance want to check it out, don't look it up by it's name. I didn't find it that way- I looked up the company that makes it in the app store- "Hit-point" and it was the first app listed. It has an icon with a white cat face in it and a yellow border.

I have read another book via netgalley.  I am loving that site! I will post a review soon.  It was a cozy mystery, based on a lady who likes to quilt. It was really a great story; I read it in just a few days.  I hope y'all don't mind me posting book reviews on the blog as well.  I know at least some of my followers like to read as well as stitch. ☺

Well, that's it for today! Hope everyone has a blessed week.

Tracey ♥

The Water of Life(Uisge beatha) by Daniel Marchildon

I was provided a free copy of this (e-)book by the publisher via netgalley.com, in return for an honest review.  I really enjoyed this book.  It was well researched and went easily from past to present without confusing the reader. I will say the family tree of the families in the book, will be very helpful! The story begins in present day, with Elizabeth Legrand,  a woman who is determined to open a Scotch whisky distillery in her small hometown with only about thirty inhabitants, and create a Scotch whisky better than any other, even those made in Scotland. It tells the story by bouncing between past and present, to tell the story of the Glen Dubh distillery, and the scotch itself, which seems to cause heartache and chaos wherever it is present, despite its amazing taste, and euphoric feelings it gives to the drinker. Even though the story went back and forth between past and present, it was easy to follow and very well written. It described perfectly all locations where the story took place, mainly Scotland and Canada.  You could even almost taste the whiskys in the book, they were described so well.  It made me want to try Scotch whisky again, to see if I missed something the first time I tried it.  It was a haunting story and very entertaining.