Book Review: The Life Revamp (Love Study) by Kris Ripper
Book Review: Love, Only Better by Paulette Stout
Book Review: My Next Play (On My Own) by Carrie Ann Ryan
Book Review: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day: 366 Elevating Utterances to Stretch Your Cranium and Tickle Your Humerus by Sue Macy
Book Review: Embroidery for Everyone: Easy to Learn Techniques with 50 Patterns! by Kelly Fletcher
Embroidery for Everyone: Easy to Learn Techniques with 50 Patterns! by Kelly Fletcher guides readers through an array of stitching techniques and decoration ideas. The patterns offer a wide variety of subjects to choose from like cute animal patterns, Boho chic borders and motifs, winter snowflakes and snowmen, Thanksgiving turkey, and springtime bunnies and flowers. You will learn to embellish clothing, create beautiful needlecraft art with nature and folk images, and make handmade heirloom seasonal decorations.
Embroidery for Everyone offers readers exactly what the title promises. There is a well done stitch guide, basic instructions and information, and more before readers are shown the first design. The designs are neat and clean, getting slightly harder and more complex as the book goes on but never getting too hard for beginners. As a crafter that is just getting back into needle work this year, after mostly working with tarn for the last decade, this book offers some good reminders and practice designs for me. The instructions are well written and I think the book works well as encouragement and instruction for those new to embroidery and for those looking to refresh or enhance their skill set.
Book Review: Whatever He Needs by Mia Kerick
Whatever He Needs by Mia Kerick is a contemporary romance. Trigger warning, Whatever He Needs includes instances of physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
Heir to the McAllister Construction fortune, Liam is focused on maintaining the myth that he is exactly the son his father wants. When he falls for Dimmy, a heavily inked go-go dancer, he fears revealing the romance, certain it won't go over well with his upper-crust family—especially his father, who seems obsessed with building a family legacy. Dimmy’s father, Gregory, is bent on making Dimmy earn his keep by any means, no matter how unsavory. He puts his barely legal son to work dancing provocatively at the seedy bar he runs and finds Dimmy work on the side providing masseuse services—and more—to club clientele. Gregory has Dimmy twisted into believing he can do no better, and Dimmy does it all in hopes of a pat on the back from his dad. Though Liam is but a few years older, Dimmy sees him as a man who might take care of him as his callous father never has, and reluctantly lets his guard down. But Liam, though he’s falling hard and fast for Dimmy, still hides his blossoming relationship from his family. A crisis ensues when a clash between the two fathers’ business interests puts Dimmy at serious risk. When the right side of the tracks meets the oh-so-very wrong side, will Liam set his priorities straight in time to keep Dimmy from harm, or will fear shatter their lives?
Whatever He Needs is a tough read emotionally. Dimmy is in a very though situation, and has never had it easy in the best of days. The abuse from his father and everything he goes through is hard to read, but his character is extremely well written. Liam has his own issues, and dos not handle everything as well as readers might hope- past and present. The relationship is a journey, and not always healthy, but I was fully engaged and invested as they each figured out their worth and how to move forward. There were moments of the book that reminded me how fully awful people can be and moments that pointed out that people can carry just as much kindness and grace- and those qualities are not dependent on circumstances. I loved the supportive secondary characters, and viscerally hated some of the characters that made life so hard. They were all well written, and invoked very strong responses from me. In fact, I plan on reading more from the author in hopes of catching some of the characters I loved one more time.
Whatever He Needs is a hard be very worthwhile read.
Book Review: Modern Crochet Style: 15 Colourful Crochet Patterns for your and your Home, Including Fun Sustainable Makes by Lindsey Newns
Early Book Review: Blowholes, Book Gills, and Butt-Breathers: The Strange Ways Animals Get Oxygen by Doug Wechsler
Blowholes, Book Gills, and Butt-Breathers: The Strange Ways Animals Get Oxygen by Doug Wechsler is currently scheduled for release on December 7 2021. This is the latest installment of the How Nature Works series.