The Poets' Wives

The stories of three poets wives supporting their husbands through mental illness, imprisonment, exhale and adultery.

Full of pain, love and loyalty.

Story 1 - my favourite of the three - was beautiful and breathtaking. I literally held my breath during parts of my reading. The love present between this husband and wife is enviable. The writing beautiful.

Story 2 - A tad more sporadic with jumbled dates but beautifully written nether the less. A story of love and loyalty against all odds.

Story 3 - much more modern than the other two stories, yet another story of loyalty and love only this time seeming one sided.


I very much enjoyed this book and read it much slower than I normally would so that I would not miss anything. 4 1/2 star rating.  I read this book for free by winning a goodreads firstreads prize draw.

Fragile Boundaries by Johnny Leavesley

This is a three star review

Really unsure what to think about this book.
It was slow to get into and I skim read much of the middle but the ending although slightly obvious was good. I liked the comparisons between the two cultures but didn't like the way this connected to the ending.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to read this book through goodreads first-reads.

Love, Lies and Lemon Pies by Katy Cannon

This is a five star review *****

Brilliant, really impressed with this YA book a very easy enjoyable read.

The topics (bake offs, hoarding, teenager issues with school and parents) are very current, the characters are likeable, it is realistic and very well written and I love the recipes. 

I won this book through goodreads Firstreads.

The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: A Novel by Elizabeth L. Silver

Read from March 06 to 07, 2014

This is a 3 1/2 star review. I was so exited that I won this book on first reads as the story line has so much promise. I really wanted this to be a fantastic book but it only lived up my standard of good. I think one of the story's main flaws wash feat that I found all of the characters unlikeable and I found myself unbothered by the outcome, just a bit curios how the story might pan out.  The story started well but then moved into a lot of boring detail, for example I didn't find it necessary to be given the details of the jury to me it added nothing to the story, and to be honest I skim read a lot of the unnecessary detail. I rather enjoyed the last third of the book that was a lot more fast paced and revealing. All in all this was a good story that maybe I have judged to harshly, I just like a storyline with character I can care about whether good, bad or ugly.

*I received this book free of charge through Goodreads Firstreads*

Ruby Zelf

My daughters limited edition Ruby Zelf, has arrived.

I can't believe it was free when they are selling for so much online.   I can't wait to see her play with it although my husband is going to keep the packaging and limited edition certificate for her.

Lego.com delivery under review

I have used lego.com previously for pick a brick lego and the more rare items such as the Delorian from Back to the future and never had any issues.  So with daughters birthday coming up I decided to use them again and I must say that I am even more impressed.

Being a lego VIP (I think this is because I am a recurring customer) I had accrued £5 worth of credit which is used as part payment.  I managed to order a small Lego friends set (the series 4 penguin set) that I can not find in any local shops, two medium sets at £10 each.  They threw in a freebie from the new Lego Disney Princess range (worth £2.99), delivery was £3.95.  So with my voucher I paid a total of £21.92 including delivery for sets that should have cost nearly £26 by themselves.

This was Monday afternoon, I received my receipt for payment this morning and expected a few days for delivery but yodel brought me my parcel this morning.
I am very happy (my daughter will be too) with my order and the quick turnaround.  Well done Lego.   

Tesco Finest* Gigli pasta

Tesco finest* Gigli pasta tested free of charge as part of the Tesco Orchard community.

03 March 2014

I set off to my local tesco with the plan to buy the Finest* Lunghi pasta but the had ran out off stock I was a tad disappointed as this looked the most 'fun' but after a quick browse through the strange shapes I decided to go for the Gigli instead (love the name by the way). 

 I cooked the pasta according to instructions and served with a light mushroom sauce for my two youngest and my hot spicy arribbiata for my eldest, my husband and myself. All but one plate was cleared - my daughter who likes her pasta al dente didn't like the softness of this pasta. But for everyone else it was a huge hit. 

 The trumpet type shape trapped chunky parts of the sauce and Parmesan where as the smooth of the sauce clung nicely to the outside. 

 My boys commented that the pasta had a mildly sweet flavour but that could have been due to me under salting the water. Sorry boys. 

 All in all it was an enjoyable meal. My only quarm about buying it again is the price, £2.40 for what would normally cost me a lot less (I'm not apposed to buying from the value range) does leave me to question the affordability of a item for everyday meals. I would probably only buy again on a bogof or other special offer, then I might stock up.

 Saying that I purchased a bag of Finest* Conchiglion at the same time as the Gigli, so I will see how that goes first.

A Girl Called Jack

A Girl Called Jack: 100 Delicious Budget Recipes by Jack Monroe

Read on March 01, 2014.   Five Star Review

As a follower of Jack Monroe's blog I was really exited to hear last year that she had a lucky break and won a book deal.

For those of you new to her story Jack was living on a budget of less than £10 per week to feed her and her small boy. She was so poor that the radiators were turned off at the mains and she took light bulbs out of certain rooms so that she wasn't tempted to waste electricity. Jack blogged all of this Along with the recipes that she was inventing to live on.

This book contains many of those recipes along with lots of new ones. I myself have already cooked some; bean goulash, falafels and vegetable curry to name a few. All have been delicious and all have fitted my own strict food budget.

I would recommend this book to those on a strict budget, students and ordinary home cooks alike and I defiantly be teaching my boys a few of Jack's staple recipes before they leave home.