Book Review - Fifty Shades Darker

I recently wrote a book review about Fifty Shades of Grey which can be found here.

I liked it so much that I immediately picked up the second book and blew right through it! So I figured I may as well write a review for this one, too.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

Plot:

Our story begins only a few days after the first book ends. I think this is great, as it allows you to see each and every moment of their relationship as it unfolds. It really creates a connection, as if you were in a relationship yourself - seeing it from every angle. I don't want to get into specifics about the plot because I don't believe in revealing spoilers during book reviews, but I will say that this book is much more action-packed and suspenseful than the first. It keeps you entertained from start to finish. As far as Fifty Shades erotic reputation is concerned, it definitely gets a little more risque in this book - but still probably not as bad as you might imagine. Even with the "S&M" stereotype that this book holds, all the sexual interactions in the book revolve around love first and foremost.

Characters:

The sequel involves many of the characters that were included in the first, as it revolves around the same people. Christian and Ana are still the main characters, and they are joined by all of Christian's family in this book... as well as a few shady antagonists. This is a breath of fresh air, since the first book mainly revolves around Christian's lifestyle taking center stage as the "antagonist". As for this one, it seems he has made the jump successfully to a full-fledged protagonist, which leaves room for plenty of colorful characters to test Christian & Ana.

Scenery:

Like the first book, this one revolves mainly in Seattle. Although I would have to say that it doesn't give you quite the same in-depth feel as the first one does, it doesn't take away from the book any. There is plenty of other stuff going on - you really don't miss it much.

Writing:

If you read my book review for the original Fifty Shades, you know I gave E.L. James a pretty hard time about her writing style. It seemed amateurish, jumped around a lot, and could be confusing at times. This book was much better. She improved a lot, I have to be honest. There were still moments where it could get repetitive - particular in the love-making scenes - but all-in-all it was better.

Rating:

I give this book a 5 out of 5, which is amazing because in my last review I only gave the original book 4 out of 5. I could not put this book down. Upon finishing it, I definitely felt like the first book was only a stepping stone to get to this one. It was that good. I definitely recommend putting this book on your reading list if you haven't already.

Having finished the 2nd book, I will admit that I have begun reading the third book in the trilogy: Fifty Shades Freed. To be honest, I am not loving it so far. I am only a hundred pages in, but so far it has been torture to even force myself to read that much without giving up on it so I'm not optimistic about the outcome. I have made a promise to myself to finish reading it, though, even if only in the interest of being thorough. I sincerely hope that my opinion changes by the time I can write the review for it, but for now it may be hard for me to even find time to read it with school being back in session. (I don't attend school, but my son is in Kindergarten now so I must read to him longer every night for his homework, plus I have extra family responsibilities now that my love is busy with his 2nd year of college.)

Although I am reading my son the first Harry Potter book, so that's fun. =)

Until next time, thanks for reading!

101 in 1001 Update

Hello again everybody! Sorry I haven't been around lately again, but I recently returned from a week long vacation in Hawaii! 

It was fantastic! But I won't get into the details here. If you'd like to read more about my Hawaiian experience, you can do so on my other blog by clicking here.

While I was there I checked off a few more things on my 101 in 1001 list! It's been a while hasn't it? Here's what I did...

#40
Fail miserably at something and look back on it as a valuable learning experience.

Yep, totally crossed this one off on my Hawaii vacation. The vacation itself was GREAT! But there was just one night that was a total nightmare. It's a long story, which can also be read on my other blog, but to make the story short I left something very valuable somewhere and ended up driving for 2 straight hours to retrieve it with 2 cranky kids in the backseat. Ugh! Lesson learned - I really need to keep better track of my stuff.

#41
Do something COMPLETELY outside of my comfort zone.

Check! The whole Hawaii vacation itself was totally outside of my comfort zone. Ask anyone who talked to me before the vacation - I was a wreck!! I freaked out about every tiny little detail! And it was all for nothing. The trip was fantastic. I definitely need to step out of my comfort zone more often.

#48
Wear make-up and do my hair every day for a week straight.

I vowed to myself that I was going to do this one while we were in Hawaii, and I actually did. And you know what? It didn't do what I thought it would for my confidence. The whole reason I put this on my list was because I thought it would give me a giant confidence boost. But you know what? I felt the same that I do every other day, even the days where I just throw my hair in a ponytail and get out the door for groceries. But that's not really a bad thing - I learned that I have a fair amount of confidence even when I'm not all dolled up, and that's even better in my opinion. I really, truly don't care what other people think of me! Hooray!

#84
Eat at 10 restaurants I've never tried before.

So I didn't cross this one off, but I did add a couple more to the list. Surprisingly, we didn't go to that many new places while we were in Hawaii (mostly because I didn't want to take the kids to sit-down restaurants - yikes!). But we did try out the Plantation Grille at the Dole Plantation, and it was fan-freaking-tastic. Mmm. So good. And we also tried out BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse in Vegas on the way back home while visiting some family that we hadn't seen in a while. That was really great too! Something for everyone there. Eva scarfed down her meal like I had never seen before in my life. Whoa.

So I guess that's it for now. I have been noticing, though, that all of the goals on my fitness/nutrition/food list have been mysterious left alone.... I need to get on top of that!

Guess that's it for now~

Aloha!

Pinterest Review - Sweet & Sour Chicken

Hey everyone! As usual, I have been absent as of late. Busy with life and all that - the usual excuses.

But you all know I gotta come back and share when I come across an amazing pin from Pinterest! That's right -  time for another Pinterest review!

So, this pin comes from Made It. Ate It. Loved It. I am normally a little leery about Sweet & Sour Chicken recipes because somehow they always seem to be WAY WAY off of what I think it should taste like. I used to work at a Chinese food restaurant, so I'm used to the good stuff, people! But after looking over the ingredients list I decided to give it a try. It sounded the closest to what I remembered from working at that restaurant.

Now, in my previous Pinterest reviews I listed the ingredients and directions next. I have since been informed that it's impolite to do so, as it takes away from the web traffic of the original blog. Whoopsie! I didn't mean any harm by it, but just as a general rule from now on I will be simply providing the link to the original recipe and then listing what I changed (if anything). So here we go!

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Original recipe can be found here.

Sorry about the absolutely horrid photo quality. I wasn't originally planning on blogging about this recipe, so I didn't think to take any nice photos. This one is brought to you courtesy of my cell phone haha. But after eating it, I just had to share!! This stuff is absolutely great!

This recipe is pretty easy as it is, and as the pin said - you really do most likely have everything you need already in your pantry. The only thing I needed to buy was garlic salt. That's it. But this recipe also calls for uncooked chicken breasts that you slice up into cubes. That's all fine and dandy - if you want to do that, go ahead!! More power to you. However, I'm the epitome of a lazy cook, so I used frozen diced chicken. The only thing I did differently to accommodate for that is microwaving the frozen chicken first (ice crystals + hot oil = NO NO!) and then cutting the cook time in half. I don't think it made too much of a difference - the sauce might have been not quite as thick for mine, but it still thickened up pretty freakin' nicely after it had cooled a bit. Other than that, follow the recipe to the letter and you are good to go! Super easy. Super delicious. Your family and your taste buds will thank you! This one is getting officially added to my monthly dinner calendar!

Thanks so much to Made it. Ate it. Loved It. for this amazing recipe, I will definitely be coming back your blog for my future recipe needs!

See you all next time!

Happy Halloween! Halloween Activities for the Family

Happy Halloween everyone!

This is one of my favorite holidays! I go all out. There's something amazing about the new Fall weather and spending time doing things just to make your kids happy. It just makes Halloween one-of-a-kind. Yesterday my family did all our Halloween activities in one night because we have been so busy this month! This is what we did.

Halloween Bingo!

This game has been a family tradition since I was a kid. My family played this every single year, and every single year I looked forward to it. In our married life, we have usually lived close enough to home that we could go to my Mom's house to play every year, but this year we are on our own, so I made our own Halloween Bingo cards! I think they turned out pretty cute. I got the pattern from Artsy Fartsy Mama. She actually has printables for it, and they are ADORABLE. Unfortunately for me, printables are for when your printer is actually working. I would have just printed mine off since they are so cute, but since I couldn't I made my own based on her pictures and bingo cards. It's ok though, it was hard work but I feel like it gave a more personal touch to it and I will treasure it a little more with each passing year.

So, bingo is a pretty simple game and the rules are basic. The only thing you do differently with Halloween Bingo is that you use candy for your markers. Then, when someone calls BINGO! you forfeit all the candy on your card to the player that won. Then after each round, you rotate your cards clockwise.

Vincent enjoyed himself immensely. As you can see by his huge candy pile, he won most of the rounds.

And as you can see by Max's lack-of-candy-pile, he didn't win at all. Haha, don't worry he's only pretending to be upset for the camera. It's actually funny, because he usually won almost every round in previous years. This bingo set must be enhanced with magical kid-advantage powers. =)

Another tradition we have is making Ghost Suckers!

All you need is lollipop sticks, aluminum foil, and chocolate. It is so much fun and tasty too!

This is something else I grew up with. My Mom had us make ghost suckers every year around Halloween. Once again, loved it and always looked forward to it. The picture above is Vincent's "Big Smile Ghost" and also his "Boo from Ruby Gloom" ghost. This is what we normally had when I did it with my Mom growing up - just melted white chocolate and milk chocolate chips. But now I am an adult. And like I said, I go all out for Halloween.

This is my ghost. She's dressed up for Halloween. This year she is going as Little Red Riding Hood. Unfortunately for her, in this version she gets eaten by the Big Bad Gela. =)

Here we have just a couple of the ones Max made. He made a Deadpool sucker for himself (left) and a Spidey sucker for Vincent (right). Turned out great right? He's so talented.

Here's another one Max made - The Grim Reaper! He looks so happy to be here for our Halloween party, doesn't he?

We just happened to have the red and black melting chocolate leftover from Eva's and my birthday party over the weekend. (More on that in the next post! Stay tuned!) But if you are feeling as ambitious as we were, melting chocolate in virtually all colors can be bought at most local crafting stores. I got mine at Jo~Ann. 

And of course, we also carved pumpkins!

Well, I have a long day full of trying to keep my kids' Halloween anxiety down before the fun stuff tonight. Wish me luck!

Happy Halloween!!

What You Made Wednesday #3 with Linky

Welcome back to What You Made Wednesday, everybody!! I look forward to this day every week. Let's start off with what I did today.....

Duct Tape (Duck Tape) Headband!

I know, you're probably sick of me saying it, but I have to...... - I'm pretty much in love with it. It is made ENTIRELY out of Duct Tape (or as most people call it, Duck Tape..... I still call it Duct Tape, call me old-fashioned) and also Electrical Tape. Electrical Tape is great for the headband because on the off-chance that the headband size you order is too snug when you receive it, electrical tape can be stretched to your desired size! I still have a few more touches to add (maybe rhinestones? We will see....), and some model photos to take of it before it goes in my shop, but when it does it will be going for $4!! Such an awesome deal in my opinion.

And now for What YOU Made. Last week we had 7 entries, but the one that got the most likes was.....

Toeless Yoga Socks by Made by Meg!

Click the photo above to be taken directly to the listing. She has some other really neat stuff - ceramic tiles coasters, super cute coffee cozies, etc. So go show her shop some love!!

And now it's YOUR turn! Show me what you've been working on all week, I love looking at them. Remember that this Linky will be open until April 10 at 11:59PM, so if you don't have something to share yet you can always come back later in the week to share your stuff! Just remember to follow my blog -------------------> so that you can find your way back here later on. Also remember that the link-up with the most likes gets a special mention next week just like Meg did today, so tell your friends to vote for you!

'Til next time, thanks for reading! <3

~*~Gela~*~