My Monday Musings: TBB Asks: holiday edition

OMG guys....December is kicking my butt!

Kevin is on vacation and we had planned a trip to NC but they had a bad snowstorms so we had to cancel. We took Fonzi to St. Augustine Beach for the day instead and had a great time (even though a rock hit our windshield and needed to be replaced 😢)but pretty much all of our plans for his two weeks off have been scrapped due to bad weather of some kind.

With all that time home without plans you would think that I got a lot of reading in but NOPE. I haven't read even one thing in almost 2 weeks. Nothing!

I've been barely keeping up visiting and commenting on blogs because my hand thing is back (kind of like repetitive stress but starting with my thumb and going up to my neck). But I did manage to blog a bit ahead thinking I would be away. Thank you so much for visiting and commenting here while I've been mostly MIA.

I've been watching a ton of Christmas movies. For the cheesy Hallmark-ish type movies I liked No Sleep 'Til Christmas on Freeform, Mingle All the Way on Hallmark & I mostly liked The Holiday Calendar but I wasn't sold on the love interest. We did our annual Krampus re-watch and still have Elf and The Christmas Story to go.

I have my last batch of Christmas gifts to wrap and ship out today - pray for me.

This is my last scheduled post for the year - unless I get bit by the productivity bug but I will still be visiting you all!

Happy Holidays everyone!!! 

Candy Canes? No. I can’t even remember the last time I had one.

Christmas morning early riser or sleep in? Same time as any other day lol If the animals wake me up then I get up – if they leave me alone I take advantage and sleep.

Did you shop on Black Friday?  I used to like…20 years ago but it’s CRAZY now. We did go out on Thursday the past few years just to look around but I’ve started taking advantage of the online Black Friday deals and use the store pick-up option. I just breeze by everyone in line on Friday morning.

Christmas tree up in November? We don’t really have a tree. Just a small table top one – sometimes. As you can see, I kind of went #gothmas this year 

 

Do you get holiday ideas from Pinterest? Nope. Never even go on there.

Christmas Glam or Ugly Sweater? Neither. I’m in FL so no sweaters for me. I guess I would go ugly maybe. I’m not really a glam. Ugly but comfortable would be better.

Stocking Stuffers: Wrapped or Unwrapped? Wrapped. I LOVE stocking stuffers.. They’re so much fun to wrap and even more fun to open all the little gifts.

Traditional or Modern Christmas Songs? Traditional I guess. Just please oh please…not until after Thanksgiving if you MUST play them.

Fruitcake? I know everyone hates and makes fun of fruitcake but Kevin’s grandmother (who has since passed)used to make the most delicious fruitcake! It’s the only one I’ve liked though.

Is your Christmas shopping finished? Yes! But I still need to ship several things. *cries*

Is there snow in December where you live? Nope. Florida….

Classic Show: A Charlie Brown Christmas or Rudolph? Rudolph and the land of misfits! 

review: my favorite half-night stand by christina lauren

By the New York Times bestselling author who “hilariously depicts modern dating” (Us Weekly), My Favorite Half-Night Stand is a laugh-out-loud romp through online dating and its many, many fails.

Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she’s a female-serial-killer expert who’s quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single.

So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they’ll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There’s only one hitch: after making the pact, Millie and one of the guys, Reid Campbell, secretly spend the sexiest half-night of their lives together, but mutually decide the friendship would be better off strictly platonic.

But online dating isn’t for the faint of heart. While the guys are inundated with quality matches and potential dates, Millie’s first profile attempt garners nothing but dick pics and creepers. Enter “Catherine”—Millie’s fictional profile persona, in whose make-believe shoes she can be more vulnerable than she’s ever been in person. Soon “Catherine” and Reid strike up a digital pen-pal-ship...but Millie can’t resist temptation in real life, either. Soon, Millie will have to face her worst fear—intimacy—or risk losing her best friend, forever.

Perfect for fans of Roxanne and She’s the Man, Christina Lauren’s latest romantic comedy is full of mistaken identities, hijinks, and a classic love story with a modern twist. Funny and fresh, you’ll want to swipe right on My Favorite Half-Night Stand. ~ Goodreads

Source: ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Review:

I ADORED Josh & Hazel's Guide to Not Dating and was really looking forward to this one. It seemed to have the same funny, romcom vibe. I was a little wary of the catfishing set up but decided to request it for review anyway. I should have went with my gut.

The positives:

I liked the whole gang of friends. They're kind of weird but fun and supportive in their weirdness lol

Both Millie and Reid are good people - until the dating fiasco which I'll get to.

I loved the idea of the all of the friends using the dating app together (as a way to find dates to an upcoming business function) and the look at online dating. It can lend itself to a lot of hilarious situations (like in Josh & Hazel)

The negatives:

Almost the entire plot of this book is based on lies and miscommunication between two people who are supposed to know each other better than anyone else.

Millie and Reid are matched on the dating app but Millie had used an alias. She realizes it’s Reid but he doesn’t know it’s her and she continues with the charade as they continue to text each other, with her pretending to be Catherine, even though they start hooking up occasionally in real life. One conversation would have resolved things in either direction - staying friends or moving on.

As the story went on and both Millie and Reid did more and more questionable things - I lost interest in their HEA and started disliking them as people. I did get where they were each coming from most of the time but all of it went on too long and walked a line that wasn't romantic at all IMO.

I’m tagging a few of my other negatives under a spoiler warning -

HIGHLIGHT for spoilers –> Millie's initial catfishing of Reid was understandable and not intentional. She was trying to be safe using an alias, didn’t know she would be matched with Reid and she thought he would know it was her and seriously - why didn't he catch ANY clues?? Made me start questioning if they really as good of friends as they kept insisting.

Millie carries on with the lie way too long and Reid absolutely deserves to be angry but he also was engaging in intimate (emotionally - not sexual) conversations with *Catherine* RIGHT after having sex with Millie. Egging Millie on to be jealous then storming about when she doesn't open up right away. What is he 12? Expecting her to spill her guts while he didn't bother to have an honest conversation with her either. Dude kept bailing right after they had sex .

Pot meet kettle.

But he's never called out on any of it. Again - Millie is wrong - but Reid wasn't all that straightforward either.

Then...after finding out about Catherine/Millie he could have re-read their emails and realized what Millie was going through and that she was spilling her guts out to him but nah, that would have ruined his pity party.

I don't know...I just didn't like either of them by the time I got to that point.
<- END SPOLIER

Lauren’s books are always hit or miss for me - Josh & Hazel will be on my Best of 2018 list but this was a miss.

my monday musings

I posted a few holiday themed question prompts for my December Book Giveaway. People seem to be having fun with it so I thought I would give it a go and answer them myself.

Would you rather experience a Christmas in 1700 or in 2100?


Definitely 2100.

I was not cut out to be all prim and proper, worry about flashing my ankle or all idiotic rules I’m supposed to follow as a lady of society.

If I was a servant – that would be a whole other problem because I probably wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut then either. lol

The year 2100 might be a fiery hellscape at the rate we’re going but I think I’ll be able to just hole up in my futuristic house and beam me up a pie or something.


Would you rather only be able to watch your favorite TV show during the holidays or have to watch it every day of the year?

I could go either way with this one.

I don’t really have FAVORITES. I have shows I love or enjoy but I could watch them a lot - like I do with my sitcoms and cartoons like Bob’s Burgers in syndication, or be happy with once a year - like I do with A Christmas Story and Elf.

Would you rather spend the holidays with your group of friends or have them each be replaced by your favorite celebrity?

*Confessions of an introvert…I don’t have a group of friends and even if I did – I wouldn’t want to spend the holidays with them lol

I’m not overly impressed by celebrities so I would pass on that one too.



Would you rather get a useful gift or a fun gift?

Useful!!! It would make me happy to have a useful gift – so isn’t that fun in a way???

Yes, yes it is – let’s go with that because between my lack of friends and joy of practical gifts, I’m starting to sound like I live a sad little life. lol

Would you rather get one amazing holiday gift or 10 OK holiday gifts?

This one is a toughie for me!

I mean…an amazing holiday gift??? What would that be? I can’t imagine what would be so amazing but it’s AMAZING so yay!

But I also like unwrapping gifts so wouldn’t that be amazing in a way??

Either way – I would want them to be from Kevin. He’s a great gift giver and swaps between amazing and smaller, simple gifts and they’re always perfect.

I know some of you have already answered these on the giveaway post (and enter here if you haven’t already!) but if you haven’t yet – let me know your answers.