The Delta (Indian) COVID variant is running loose in Missouri. Hospital admissions are on the rise – do we ride it out or hide from it – again? Whistleblowers from inside the CDC claim that 50,000 people have died from the experimental injectable – can we believe that? Who knows what to believe at this stage. Biden claims if you want to take on the federal government you need “F-15’s and Nukes” – pretty sure you just made an argument FOR the 2nd amendment, sir. Also, my back hurts.
The guy I collided with drove an expensive car and was drop-dead gorgeous. Too bad he was also a total jerk. We argued over whose fault it was and any other thing that came out of his condescending mouth.
Eventually, the police came and we went our separate ways. The insurance companies would have to figure things out. I had a job interview to get to anyway—one I was excited about.
Though that excitement changed to disappointment the moment the person interviewing me walked in. The guy from the accident.
Whoops!
Yeah, so I didn’t get the position.
The problem was, I really wanted it. No, I needed it. Anything to get me out of my current career and back into working with kids.
So, even though Hollis LaCroix was as intimidating as he was devastatingly handsome, I went back to see him and begged for a chance.
To my surprise, he gave me a shot taking care of his troubled niece.
At least my attraction to him wouldn’t be able to go anywhere. I wasn’t about to jeopardize my job or the strong bond Hailey and I formed.
But resisting the magnetic pull between us wasn’t that simple. (Then there was our little underwear game—don’t ask.)
We continued to flirt without crossing the line—until it finally happened.
This is the part of the story where we fall in love and live happily ever after, right?
Well, life has a way of throwing some major curveballs.
Ours was one I didn’t see coming..
I had no intention of giving this story anything over three stars. And then the authors threw in a curve ball at the end and I ended up with tears in my eyes. Okay fine, four stars it is.
This review will contain spoilers – so if you haven’t read it and you want to read it – don’t read any further. You’ve been warned.
Elodie is an attractive woman. And she uses her looks to flirt with married men in the hopes of providing evidence that they are cheating on their wives. She’s an investigational decoy employed by a detective agency. She hates it, but it pays the bills.
Her best friend, Bree, shows her an ad for a nanny. Elodie has a degree in child development and her true passion lies with being around children and that’s what she really wants to do with her life. So, taking her life by the short and curlies, she applies for the job.
On her way to the job interview, she gets into a fender bender with a handsome man. They spar back and forth, the police arrive, they file their complaints and they go about their business. Elodie makes it to her interview and is speaking with her female interviewee when lo and behold, who walks into the interview but the guy she had a fender bender with.
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at this “coincidence,” but whatever – it’s a convenient way for the hero and the heroine to meet and start to interact.
Elodie doesn’t get the job as Hollis, the man who hit her, though he swears it’s the other way around, says no way in hell is he hiring her for the job. How can he trust her to take care of his niece if she can’t even drive to the interview without an incident?
Elodie leaves in a huff and stops by the building’s cafeteria to grab a coffee where she meets Hailey, an eleven-year old girl with a sassy mouth. They hit it off, primarily because the girl reminds Elodie of herself at that age. She soon learns that Hailey is Hollis’ niece and now she really wants the job as she wants the opportunity to help steer this girl away from the troubled path she finds herself on.
Since Elodie and Hollis exchanged personal information at the accident, she knows where he lives and not having anything to lose, she goes to his apartment to basically beg him to give her a chance.
Hailey sees her at the door, says she enjoyed talking to her in the cafeteria and talks her Uncle Hollis into giving her the job.
Elodie is a divorcee whose husband cheated on her. Hollis’s childhood friend, then girlfriend, Anna, turned down his marriage proposal and stated she was seeing someone else. Both of them have relationship/abandonment issues and are very cautious around one another though their physical attraction for each other starts to become impossible to ignore.
Hollis takes Elodie home one evening and excuses himself to use the restroom. While in there, he sees Elodie’s thongs draped over the shower rod to dry. (Why does it always have to be thongs? I LOATHE thongs. They are the most uncomfortable form of underwear known to man. I would rather go commando than wear a thong – but whatever). Elodie is mortified that he’s that close to her underwear but whatever, she wasn’t expecting to ever find her boss in her bathroom so he would have to deal with seeing her intimates.
The next morning, as she’s getting ready to catch the train into the city to be with Hailey, she realizes her black thong is missing. She looks everywhere for it and soon realizes that Hollis must have taken it. She gets to his apartment and while Hailey is busy doing something else, she goes into Hollis’ bedroom to see if he had indeed taken her underwear. She finally finds it, under his pillow, and feeling naughty, she exchanges her current thong (*rolls eyes*) with the black one under his pillow.
This back and forth goes on for some time with neither one of them of saying anything but continuing the “game.” Elodie knows Hollis is doing naughty things to her underwear because it smells like his aftershave.
I have to say, this naughty back and forth was entertaining and fun and the authors do a really good job of building the sexual tension. However, I’m starting to get a bit bored with the story as it’s not really progressing and it prompts quite a few eye rolls from me, (literally), because it’s borderline cliche.
Elodie’s friend, Bree, who pointed out the ad to her in the first place, has an incurable lung disease with an impossibly long name. She’s not doing well and Elodie has to sort of halt the attraction she’s feeling for Hollis in order to be there for her friend. Bree also happens to be the stepsister of her Elodie’s ex-husband, which was an interesting twist. Bree calls a family meeting and everyone gets together at a lake house so Bree can basically give everyone her dying wishes.
Hollis, knowing that Elodie is at the lake house with her ex-husband, goes a little crazy because he doesn’t want Elodie’s ex to talk, or trick, her into getting back together, and that prompts him to make a decision, he wants to try and have a relationship with Elodie.
Elodie agrees but both want to proceed slowly( i.e. no sex) because they’ve both been burned and they don’t know how Hailey will take the news that her uncle and her nanny are dating.
Bree takes a turn for the worse and ends up in the hospital. Bree’s family is there and when Elodie and Hollis arrive, Elodie is shocked to witness Hollis’ reaction to Bree. (They had never met before this point because Bree never physically felt up to meeting Hollis).
It’s soon revealed that Bree IS Anna. Bree’s full name is Brianna. This is a complete game changer for Hollis and Elodie and they grapple with their guilt and desire to be together.
This is where I started to get into the story. The story was a bit formulaic at this point and though I wasn’t exactly bored, I wasn’t exactly enjoying the story either – I was simply going through the motions. But when the authors threw that curveball into it, that was enough to push me into the land of caring.
I really appreciated the complicated nuances of the complicated emotions that both Hollis and Elodie went through. They wanted to be together but they felt like they were betraying Bree/Anna. I found their reactions believable and that really pulled me into their stories, I became vested in their lives from that point onward.
As I mentioned, the story was a bit ho-hum up to that hospital scene. I would have liked to have seen more of a relationship struggle between Elodie and Hailey as it was mentioned she was a “troubled” teen but I didn’t really see any evidence of that. In fact, I felt like Hailey was incredibly easy going and that relationship clicked from the very beginning. I get why the authors likely didn’t put much more effort into that aspect of the story as they wanted to focus on Elodie and Hollis, but I feel like that would have helped develop Elodie’s character a bit more.
Hollis is a player but he doesn’t really exhibit any of the player personality, in my opinion. He’s so obsessed with Elodie that he comes off as a bit if a puss and Elodie has way too much power in this dynamic.
I also think it would have been interesting to see more of Hollis and Bree/Anna’s dynamic after the initial surprise of finding her in the hospital. Instead of these interactions happening, the authors chose for Bree/Anna to write them each letters explaining her reasons for leaving Hollis and in essence, giving them both permission to be together. I can understand why the authors chose to write the story that way, but I wish the last part of the book had been expanded on a bit more and a little less “perfect” relationship scenarios highlighted. Those bored me. It was too good to be true for a little too long.
Overall, it was an interesting read. It evoked emotion for me and like I said, I teared up at the end. That hospital scene definitely elevated my rating from three stars to four stars – mainly because it was so left field and took me completely by surprise.
Responding to Goodreads comments:
Itstarted out great. The first half was a page turner with great characters, some amazing chemistry, and a very slow, steamy buildup. It took a looong time for the h and H to finally get together, which did get a little old. But overall i really enjoyed the first half.
The second half on the other hand…..not so great. It almost felt like a completely different book. There was absolutely no heat between the lead characters. None. Nada. Zip. The h and H learn something about their relationship that shocks them (and me, to be honest. Something for which the author should get a few props, I suppose). But after this revelation the H was a bit too moody and cold. And the heat that was building between them for the first half of the book was gone. I no longer cared what happened between them. I just wanted to get it over with. The story became sad and depressing and a bit of a downer to be honest.
The ending was a happy one, but by that point I had completely checked out.
It’s funny, the negative comments on this story all begin with, “it started out great! But then the second half of the story was a downer.” I feel the complete opposite. I feel like the first half was boring as hell and the second half was where it got interesting. I appreciated the twist and the complex emotions that came along with all of that.
But, I will say, I do agree with some of the negative comments – it does seem like Hollis is settling for Elodie as “second best.’ His love for her is really more physical whereas his relationship with Anna was deeper, more fulfilling than with Elodie. It does make me wonder if Anna had lived if Hollis wouldn’t have dumped Elodie and been with her instead. And it does seem like Hollis is a bit “stuck” in the past when it came to his love for Anna. She was the love his life and yet he’s now with Elodie …??
I think it’s important to remember that there are different types of loves in life. I think that was what the authors were trying to tell us in this story. It is possible to love more than one person in life – it all depends on circumstance and timing, really. Who knows if Hollis would have picked Anna over Elodie at that point in his life. He would always have feelings for Anna, but were those feelings out of loyalty and memory, or feelings that he wanted to explore and share into his future?
I wasn’t expecting such complexity with this story and the fact that I ended it with a glimpse of the iceberg under the water was enough for me to give this four stars.
You smell funny. Is that a new perfume or is it COVID? Group of parents sent their children’s masks in to be analyzed – guess what they found? Canada’s “top doctor” recommends wearing a mask during sexual activity, (I’m not making this up). Biden is dumping illegal-alien youth across the nature and Obama’s White House doctor is recommending Biden take a cognitive test. Thanks for listening!
Politics all the time. I’m making a separate podcast for my book reviews. Worried about bumping into something or somebody when you are looking down at your phone? A third eye might be the product for you. Let’s make a deal – I’ll pay for your college if you serve in the military for a minimum of three years. Inflation is coming, if your pocketbook ready? Attention white people – we are parasites and there is no cure for our whiteness. Hey snowflakes – facts don’t care about your feelings.
I DESPISE rap. Mostly. There is some rap that is tolerable but for the most part, I can’t get behind basically speaking to a beat. I’m sure it’s hard, I can’t do it, but it’s just not my jam.
However,
Tom MacDonald.
To be fair, I don’t have a lot of experience with rap. When you say rapper, I think of the thugs that exploit women, have a mouth full of gold teeth and who yell an expletive every other word. I’m sure there is some really good rap out there, I just haven’t come across it yet. And rapping, in a lot of ways, is story telling to a beat.
I suppose most music is story telling on many different levels.
But Tom MacDonald’s “Snowflakes” song caught my attention. Why? Because he speaks raps the truth.
I watched an interview with him and Brandon Tatum. He started out as a regular rapper, talking about how the police are bad, he wants money, women, etc. The same ole, same ole. Tom started to realize that he’s not doing anything different – he’s just mimicking the artists he admires.
But then he sank to a new low in his life, realized he was an alcoholic, and worked to get his life back together again.
All of this to say, I appreciate the message he’s putting out there. He claims not to be political, and maybe he’s not, but his lyrics speak the raw truth of what is going on in our country right now and I for one appreciate that. Music, TV shows, anything like that, affects your mental health. For example, Brandon talks about taking a 30-day challenge put out there by a Christian music station. They asked people to listen to them, and just them, for 30 days and see if it didn’t affect their attitudes. Brandon says he took that challenge and sure enough, he felt free, light, optimistic, etc. whereas he would listen some other types of music where the message was anger, violence, hate and he would feel angry and violent. You have to be careful what sort of material you surround yourself with because it DOES affect you.
What you put into your head comes out of your heart.
Just like being around negative people can make you feel negative. You have to have a strong mind and be truthful with yourself enough to realize when something is affecting you and step away. Get some fresh air. Get a different perspective. Learn all sides to a story before making snap judgements.
I would encourage you to watch Tom’s video, but better yet, pay attention to the lyrics:
“Snowflakes”
If you lie to the government they’ll put you in prison But when they lie to all of us it’s called being a politician You think taking guns away will save our kids from the killings But your pro-choice abortion kills way more children If America’s so terrible and racist It probably isn’t safe to encourage immigration, just saying All the contradictions are embarrassing You know who hates America the most? Americans Trigger warnings used to be on TV for seizures And now they’re everywhere to protect millennials’ feelings He, she, his, him, hers, them, they Screw a pronoun, ’cause everyone’s a retard these days I hear ’em preaching at a protest that hatred’s the problem But hating straight men, white folks, and Christians is common Coca Cola telling people they should be less white They preaching tolerance but if you disagree, they fight There’s a race war here, elections based on fear Black lives only matter once every four years Soldiers died for this country and every one of us benefits Give welfare to the bums and forget about the veterans Black folks and white folks divided by the news But we’re all the same, we are red, white, and blue Ashamed to be American? Okay, that’s cool ‘Cause honestly, we are all ashamed of you too
(Chorus) Y’all are so fake, oh no The forecast said that there’d be snowflakes, whoa-oh You can’t make us see it your way, no way, gasoline and propane More flames, oh no No more snowflakes
They set us up to fail, that’s what they built the system for Put an ammunition shop across the street from a liquor store Empowering women used to be different than this before The role models got OnlyFans or dance on a stripper pole Screw it, I ain’t tripping, I don’t mean to be mean But if our children are the future then our future is bleak They take an Adderall to focus, hit McDonald’s to eat They’re addicted to phones and they take Xanax to sleep They blurred the lines dividing communism and democracy In 2021 we paint the patriots as Nazis The men playing women’s sports get trophies for winning Like great, let’s celebrate a man for beating some women If you’re black, your life matters, you’re supposed to embrace it If you’re rich or you’re smart then you’re probably Asian If you’re gay then you’re brave, all of that I’m okay with But if you’re white, the stereotype is you are a racist Blaming capitalism like that’s the reason things are tough While you tweet from an iPhone and sip on a Starbucks You’re supporting what you stand against you don’t think you are but A Percocet addict don’t donate money to pharma Damn dog, we’re all afraid to speak the truth And the more afraid we get, the more we hate the ones who do You’re ashamed to be American, okay that’s cool ‘Cause honestly, we are all ashamed of you too
We could all get along but there’s no stopping, ay Everybody’s wrong, that’s a real problem, ay They don’t wanna hear it but they still talking, ay Soon enough we running outta options, ay This ain’t gonna end till it’s in a coffin, ay We ain’t gon’ be friends till we try to squash it, ay I don’t know how we can make amends or we drop it Snowflakes melt when it’s hot, kid
There’s a lot of truth to his lyrics. This is the kind of stuff that our kids should be listening to – truth. Facts don’t care about feelings.
Another aspect of this I’ve seen conservative talking heads talk about is how it’s refreshing to have a pop-culture conservative message out there. If conservatives want to reach people, especially in today’s culture, we need to relay that message THROUGH pop culture. One of the reasons a lot of young people think conservatives are the devil incarnate is because they are never exposed to the conservative perspective – all of the entertainment they consume does a really good job of making conservatives out to be Hitler re-incarnate which is the exact opposite of what conservatism stands for. Hollywood, musicians, reality shows, all permeate liberal ideologies – young people are not going to sit down and listen to talking heads spout conservative stuff because it’s not fun, it’s not cool. So I’m hopeful that Tom MacDonald sets a trend for more conservative thinkers out there to realize that if we want young people to listen, or even entertain the thought of listening to the “other” side, that we realize that social media outlets and entertainment avenues is basically THE only way to get the message out there.
Do you think it’s a coincidence that “old” people are conservative and “young” people are liberal? It’s because being a conservative means being responsible, rational, logical and young people, for the most part, are immature, impulsive, and impatient.
I guess what I’m trying to say is make conservatism cool and relatable enough for people to pay attention to.
Updated: Here are some interesting, and strangely satisfying, reactions to Tom’s “Snowflakes” video.
There are many, many more interesting reaction videos to “Snowflakes.” Honestly, this gives me hope. Maybe enough people will see it, talk about it and learn from it – maybe things will start to change.
Nearly 200 staff members at a Houston-area hospital were suspended for not following a policy that requires employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Their suspensions followed a protest by dozens of workers on Monday night against the policy.
The hospital, Houston Methodist, had told employees that they had to be vaccinated by Monday or face suspension. Last month, 117 Houston Methodist employees filed a lawsuit against their employer over the vaccine policy. Source
The Houston Methodist Hospital deadline has arrived and 117 employees were put on a two-week suspension without pay – they have two weeks to “come to their senses” and get the experimental injectable …. or else.
I feel like healthcare across the country is watching this case. I know I certainly am because I’m QUITE sure that the hospital where I work is watching it very closely as well. And why wouldn’t they? If Houston Methodist wins it will only embolden hospitals across the country to pull the same stunt.
Including the hospital where I work.
On one hand, I get why they would require vaccines – their argument is to protect the patients. And I get that. They already mandate the yearly flu vaccine though the percentage of effectiveness is pretty low most of the time because it’s a crap shoot whether the drug companies “predict” what that season’s strain will be. And of course, I have a huge problem with this but I’ve gone along to get along for years. I don’t like it, but it was necessary to keep my job.
And now, here we are with COVID. Again, it makes ZERO sense to me to get an experimental injectable, that hasn’t been fully tested for a disease that has a recovery rate of 99% for most people. Not to mention, the really weird incentives that states are throwing out there to encourage people to get the vaccine. You mean, people are not scared enough of the disease? Shouldn’t the disease itself be motivation enough for people to get the vaccine if they so choose? Why do officials feel the need to bribe us to get the vaccine?
Is risking my health really worth a donut? Or a beer? I truly don’t understand how people can be so easily bought.
But whatever. Get the vaccine, don’t get the vaccine, I could give a shit, but DO NOT make me inject God knows what against my will. I’ll take my chances with the disease. (If I haven’t already had it).
Which by the way, health care workers have been not only exposed to COVID this past year, but likely a whole slew of diseases and will continue to do so while working at a healthcare facility. Just because you mandate a flu vaccine or an experimental injectable does not guarantee you will not contract the disease and take it to work with you. All you can do is take every precaution not to infect the patients you take care of and believe me, the hospital takes PPE VERY seriously. (Personal protection equipment). Not only to protect the employee, but the patients as well.
My point being, getting a vaccine does not guarantee anything. And since we don’t know what the long-term repercussions of this experimental mRNA can and/or will do to a body, I’m not willing to play that particular game of Russian Roulette.
The comments on this news story, and on Twitter, are alarmingly hateful. But then again, what did I expect? As with most issues, people are not seeing the big picture here. I daresay Houston Methodist is not seeing the big picture, either. Here’s why – we have been SEVERELY short staffed for a while. Even before COVID hit. Healthcare demand is going up but the supply is way down. I just don’t think a lot of people are going into healthcare right now, for a number of reasons. Can these hospitals really afford to lose 1/8 of their staff by mandating an experimental injectable? Or any other injection, for that matter. And if hospitals lose staff, that means the people that remain will be overworked to compensate.
When does it end?
All I know is, I DON’T want to lose my job. I love it, I love the people I work with, I’m confident in what I do but I’m mentally prepared to walk away if backed against a wall.
I forgot to talk more about the invisible piece of art, but I swear, this was not a joke, see the show notes below for more details. AOC makes a some (more) stupid comments this week and it’s all I can not to insult her, screw it, she’s stupid. Concealed carry weapons may be the norm and schools can’t make students leave their constitutional rights a the door – the secret? Don’t let them tread on your rights, yo. Book review of the week is Black Coral by Andrew Mayne and I go over an hour again – dang it!
Write From Karen 