Teaser Tuesday: How’s the blog shaping up and new logo.

Salut! And welcome back to this little space on the internet. 

Blog Update

Good afternoon, good evening, good night, or morning! I trust that all is well. La Petit Muse is forever an ongoing work in process, but I am just figuring out how I want it to shape up with God’s direction of course. You may not have noticed, but the blog changes with me. Every time I adjust, tweak and go…

…there is always something that I’m not satisfied with. I’m by no means a perfectionist – I leave that to God – but I do enjoy pushing myself to creative limits for I tend to discover new things… things that I never thought I’ll be doing in my earthly years! 

Logo

This logo was months in the making! I’ve been working on and off on a logo for the blog and I needed to step back and let God have His way. I knew I wanted a butterfly and a coffee cup on the logo so when the final design came together, I was happy with the result. The transparent form of this logo is now in use on the new designs I’ve been coming up with recently.

Banner

Working on it. All in His timing. 😃

Color Coding? 

This is something I’ve been thinking of for a while and it started with the last Teaser Tuesday. I love using colors, but I may eventually narrow it down to a few colors in the near future for all blog posts or just color code a few of the series. 

Category is…

In the last Teaser, I asked what new categories you were interested in and you were kind enough to leave a comment so thank you. Since then, I’ve kicked off trailer reaction and I have plans to begin three new series soon: A to Z Challenge: Birds, What’s Up Wednesday and Travel Tuesday. Just this morning, I was given another short series to work on: Things Christians Should Stop Saying. As soon as God gives me the green light, it’s go- time! In the meantime, I’m working on putting them together and perhaps, a new schedule. 

Currently…

…I’m trying to read. I’m looking for that book that will propel me to enjoy reading once again as I want to complete my TBR. I am currently reading The Woman in the White Kimono a debut from Ana Johns, but I’m not sure what to make of it as yet. 

I’m also writing a lot lately so pretty soon, I’ll start posting short stories once again. Some of them are just thoughts and ideas that may not be formed into full stories, but I’ll post them anyway. 

Time is still limited and although I don’t have much time as before to spend on this community, I am delighted to take whatever time I can get to catch up on your blogs. Thank you for your visits, reads, likes, and comments. May God bless the person reading this. 

***GIFs via Google Search

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Twenty Questions Book Tag📚

And welcome back to another book tag segment! I know I just currently did one, but I’ve had this one bookmarked as well (found it via thriceread) and figured that now is a good time to give it a try. You know what to do: get your bestie a coffee…

…and savor the irresistible sips as you read along.

1. How many books are too many books in a book series?

I could only speak for the Alex Cross series. It’s on the 26th book and it’s still going strong. I remember trying to get into the Pretty Little Liars series before it became a thing, but I found it boring after the 3rd book or so and quit. 

2. How do you feel about cliffhangers?

I can handle it once it’s done well. 

3. Hardcopy or paperback?

Definitely paperback! 

4. Favorite book?

The Holy Bible. 💙

5. Your least favorite book?

Anything fantastical. I can’t handle fantasy, magic, and things of those nature.

6. Love triangles, yes or no?

7. The most recent book you just couldn’t finish?

At the moment it’s Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It’s literally boring!

8. A book you’re currently reading?

I just started reading the first book of The Women’s Murder Club series by James Patterson (1st To Die) and I’m not overly impressed. I’ll discuss the book at a later time.

9. Last book you recommended to someone?

Well, someone recently wanted a quick and exciting read so I recommended Invisible by James Patterson. 

10. The oldest book you’ve read? (Publication date) 

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (1844).

11. The newest book you’ve read? (Publication date)

The President Is Missing by James Patterson and Bill Clinton (2018).

12. Favorite author?

God. Mortals include Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, and James Patterson. 

13. Buying books or borrowing books?

I prefer to buy my own books, but I sometimes borrow books from fellow bookworms if I’m interested in it.

14. A book you dislike that everyone else seems to love?

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Too-long chapters, overwritten garbage, too slow… more like I’ll Give You Death. I tried being nice, but it didn’t work out.

15. Bookmarks or dog-ears?

Definitely bookmarks!

16. A book you can always reread?

It’ll always be the Holy Bible. I’m on my 5th or so reread. 

17. Can you read while hearing music?

I don’t listen to music while reading, but if someone is blasting music (which is the norm where I live) I can definitely read through it. 

18. One POV or multiple POV? (POV = Points of view)

I don’t mind the multiple POV once the author knows what he or she is doing. 

19. Do you read a book in one sitting or over multiple days?

Now that I don’t have the time to sit and enjoy reading, it usually takes multiple days… even weeks. However, if the book is a page-turner, I read it in one sitting. 

20. One book you read because of the cover. 

I haven’t read it as yet, but I brought Glitter by Aprilynne Pike because I thought the cover was lovely.

*** Jack Sparrow GIFs via Google Images

Book #59: Anything for a Story

Stormi Nelson, best-selling romance author, moved into her huge Victorian house in the private community of Oak Meadows Estates. When her agent tells her that her characters are becoming too cardboard and that she needs to get out and mingle with people, she comes up with the idea of a Neighborhood Watch Program. The only problem is … she’s the only member.

On her first night of patrol, she stumbles over a dead body, meets a hunky detective, who happens to be her neighbor and clearly frustrated with her, and her mother, sister, niece and nephew arrive to shake up Stormi’s peaceful life. As she is immersed ever deeper into the mystery surrounding a neighbor’s murder, she decides to change writing tactics and write a romantic mystery based on her experiences. What follows is a frolicking good time as Stormi finds herself the nosiest neighbor of them all. Can she find the killer before she becomes the next victim?

Author: Cynthia Hickey
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 25, 2014)
Chapters: 24
Pages: 200
Series: A Nosy Neighbor Mystery (#1)

So.

We have Stormi Nelson, a popular romance writer who decides to become a mystery writer after tripping over a dead body, but here’s the thing, Stormi doesn’t know it was a dead body claiming it was dark, yet, she had a flashlight with her. She thinks solving the crime would help her accomplish being a mystery writer.

I did not like the author’s style of writing and I did not feel any connection with any of the characters. Mama Nelson was annoying and Stormie should have spent time putting her foot down for her uninvited mother and sister instead of tearing up like a little girl over everything.

Matt and Stormi had no chemistry. Matt spent the majority of the story kissing and halfheartedly threatening Stormie to stay away from the so-call on-going investigation. Some detective he claimed to be! As for Miss Wanna Be Detective, she spent the majority of the story telling us how hot Matt looks without a shirt and making assumptions instead of following through like a thorough detective. Like when the fool saw the blood and thought the Edgars killed Rusty. Even I knew they didn’t kill the poor thing.

Every character in this book was annoying and not to mention superficial. No one even cared about the deceased victims.

Stormi is not only a nosy neighbor but a dimwitted nosy fool who jumps to conclusions quicker than you can say ‘dead body’. Also, she was juvenile-like and it irritated me a lot. Good mystery; obnoxious characters. Another thing that irked me was the fact that Cherokee became Cheyenne towards the near end and no one picked up on the sudden name change.

I think I’ll skip on the other volumes in this series.

QUOTABLES:

“I’m perfectly serious. Another body would most likely give us clues. Don’t you watch Castle or Criminal Minds? They always shake things up with another murder.” (Chapter 6; Page 44)

I do like both shows, but I rate Criminal Minds above Castle. 

VERDICT:

NEXT UP:

Born Evil by Adrian Havill. Diving into some true crime!

Book #8: Hunting Eve

Author: Iris Johansen
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (July 16th, 2013)
Pages: 375 (Including an excerpt from Silencing Eve)
Chapters: 17
Series: Eve Duncan #17, New Eve Duncan Trilogy #2

BLURB:

She was taken for a reason. Chosen for her skills as a forensic sculptor. Abducted by the deranged father of a serial killer and forced to reconstruct his dead son’s skull from bone fragments. Now Eve Duncan has escaped her captor – and she’s running for her life. Alone. Unarmed. In the mountains of Colorado, Eve must use all of her strength, courage, and wits to survive this madman’s obsession. But Jim Doane is not the only player in the game. While Joe Quinn, Jane MacGuire, and Kendra Michaels search for Eve in the abandoned mining town that could be her ultimate refuge – or her grave – a stranger with ties to her long-ago past is closing in, circling like a wolf, and HUNTING EVE.  

…REVIEW!

*sighs* This book was so overwhelmingly boring that I couldn’t finish it.

Eve this, Eve that (Hello Mary Sue!). If she is so ordinary, plain interesting and unattractive, why was she getting all those praises as if she was the second coming? For a moment I thought I was reading about Eleanor of Aquitaine, the way everyone was going on and on and on and… let me take a breather.

The MAIN point is, this novel should have been a stand alone. I feel as if the author rambled throughout the book because she had to stretch the trilogy. I am not sure what was worse, the character interaction (very insipid) or the writing. The plot was good, but the writing was not good enough to keep my attention as it was boring and repetitive. 

A word to the author: put Eve to bed, it’s time. The cover might be good looking, but the writing isn’t.

I won’t be touching another book in this series. They could kill Eve for all I care.

Quotable:

Vision is such a wonderful gift that I don’t take anything for granted.

– Chapter 3; Page 45

RATING:

**GIFs/Images that don’t belong to LPM are via Google Search (Right-click for original source)

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