Shick Hydro Silk Razor provided a moisture-rich shave but wasn't the closest shave ever

When I was shaving with the Shick Hydro Silk razor in the shower, I felt like it was doing a super job. I can't usually shave in the shower without getting razor burn pretty bad, but this razor didn't create that issue. My legs also felt pretty smooth immediately after the shave, so I thought this would be an overall positive experience.

Unfortunately, approximately 36 hours post shave I noticed that I had patchy leg hair and not just emerging stubble. Apparently the razor missed several hairs (and not in a cluster because of pilot error) and they gotten freakishly long compared to the tiny stubble. I usually manage to go 72 hours before I really need to shave, and I couldn't even make it halfway with this razor.

For this reason, it would not be a favorite, but I will probably pull it out from time to time when I want a quick shave in the shower.

A Wedding Date in Hot Springs, Arkansas by Annalisa Daughety: a Review

I'll be honest - what first attracted me to the book A Wedding Date in Hot Springs, Arkansas by Annalisa Daughety was the fact that it was Christian fiction set in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I grew up in Northeast Louisiana, and we went up to Hot Springs several times in my childhood for family vacations. I have been up and down the downtown streets and to Magic Springs. Because of this connection with the location, I felt like it would be fun to read this book...and I was right.

However, I wasn't right purely because of my attention - this was just a plain fun and enjoyable book. Violet Matthews and Jackson Stratford led what I felt like was a feel good and fun romantic comedy in print. So much Christian fiction starts out fun and dives into seriousness and then emerges on the other side for a happy ending. Minus a really brief moment, this book stayed happy all the way through which I really, really loved.

The Guardian by Beverly Lewis: a Book Review and Exploration

It took me a while to get through The Guardian, acclaimed Amish fiction author Beverly Lewis' latest release and the third entry in her Home to Hickory Hollow series. I think a lot of this was because the book started a bit slow with several chapters dedicated to events that bring the main characters together which, in this book, is the return of a little Amish girl named Sarah to her community after she is separated from her mother and siblings during a late night carriage trip home. After I got over that hump, the book was easier to read though I never experienced a "can't put it down" moment the whole way through, a bit of a rarity for most Beverly Lewis reads.

I think a lot of my problems following the text at my usual clip of speed has to do with this book focusing more on smaller children and baptized members of the Amish community. Often Amish books focus on teens or young adults in their rumschpringa which allows readers to view the church at its most liberal - where one is given free will to choose the church.

The Lesson by Suzanne Woods Fisher: a Book Review

Yesterday, I finished reading The Lesson by Suzanne Woods Fisher and was delighted to have finally gotten to a book focused on Mary Kate Lapp as I adored her from the first Stoney Ridge Seasons book. She was a much needed breath of spontaneous air all throughout the series. I hope that we see her again in other books....I'll explore the reasons why below.

The Lesson opens (more or less) with a new family moving into Stoney Ridge, Mary Kate - antsy as usual, and a scooter accident. The minor scooter accident ends up putting Mary Kate in charge of the Amish school for an entire term while she contemplates the direction her life is going to head off in.

Meanwhile, Chris Yoder and his little sister, Jenny, set out to spruce up an old family home while awaiting the day they inherit the place and hoping that their drug-addict mother does nothing to upset their apple-cart until Chris turns 21.

I liked this book pretty well, but it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be given the quality of The Keeper and The Haven (the other Stoney Ridge series volumes). I felt like not enough of Mary Kate and Chris burgeoning relationship was explored amidst everything else going on in the book. I also thought more would happen with MKs former enemy and now friend Jimmy, but his character went out like a wet firework after a volume spent on him being bad, badder, and baddest. I hope that we encounter the young man in another book and that he sets himself straight.

While I was pretty happy that MK and Chris ended up together, I just wanted to see a nicer resolution to that storyline and have Perry Mason come in and twist Chris and Jenny's mom into a legal pretzel. I'm not accustomed to my Amish fiction ending with 50% happy and 50% up in the air questions/darker thoughts. In a way, I think it is nice that Suzanne Woods Fisher is expanding the genre and making it more realistic or true-to-life (which I have often commented on before), but I also miss having a book tied up with a pretty little bow at the end.

What was super duper nice about this book was encountering a married Amos and Fern several years after their relationship bloomed in The Haven. It was nice to have Amos with somebody after he dealt with so many health issues in the prior volumes.

On a scale of 1-5, I would give this book a 4 any day of the week. I like that Fisher's fiction always keeps us guessing.

Disclosure: I received an eGalley of this volume for review. As always, my thoughts are my own.

Progresso Recipe Starters Add Pizzazz to Game Day: Enter to Win!

I had been eyeing Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ in the supermarket for a while but had never jumped because I usually don't cook from a liquid stock. When I was recently offered the opportunity, through MyBlogSpark, to sample the new line by giving the Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ Creamy Roasted Garlic with Chicken Stock a whirl in our kitchen as a "Game Day Starter."

Progresso's website has numerous recipes to craft with each of the new Recipe Starters, but instead of following one recipe straight through, I adapted the recipe for Chicken and Ham Slab Sandwiches to work with the Creamy Roasted Garlic. Here is my recipe:

PepperJack and Garlic Chicken Sandwiches

Ingredients:

1 Can Creamy Roasted Garlic Progresso™ Recipe Starters™
1 Can Refrigerated Pizza Crust
4 Slices Pepperjack Cheese
2.5 Cups Tyson Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breast Pieces (the cubed variety)

The Dilemma of Charlotte Farrow by Olivia Newport - a Book Review

I really enjoyed the character Charlotte Farrow the way Olivia Newport wrote her in the first book in the Avenue of Dreams trilogy of stories. In that book, she served as a woman with serious real life problems that served as a drastic counter to the problems Lucy Banning faced. While Lucy was bucking the societal trends of the day, Charlotte was fighting for survival for herself and, particularly, for her son.

In this book, The Dilemma of Charlotte Farrow, Charlotte feels a bit washed. I feel like this may have been a purposeful choice by the author to demonstrate the effect all of the problems Charlotte is facing have on her choices and thinking. Given the subject matter - a mother trying to protect her son from a bad father - I understand the need for a more serious book than most. However, I wish that this book could have been longer so that the really serious aspects could be explored while also allowing for better development of the Archie and Charlotte romance. I think that someone coming into this story flat - without having read the prior Avenue of Dreams book - would have a difficult time understanding why these two people love each other.

The World's Fair portion of the story remained in this book, though it was less prominent and less glamorous. Since Charlotte did not have Lucy's life of privilege - this was a natural transition. Also natural was mention of the labor disputes, riots, and other social shifts happening at this point in time - particularly in Chicago.

At the end of the day, I liked this book very well and am still looking forward to the last book in this series. I think we are introduced to the next leading character (Sarah) in the text of this volume, just like we initially met Charlotte in Lucy's story. Given that Sarah had very little individual character exploration in this volume (beyond her working personality), I think that book will standalone much better than this volume did.

A Duke's Promise by Jamie Carie - a Review

I have read and reviewed the other two novels in Jamie Carie's Forgotten Castles trilogy here at MiscMayzee. I genuinely enjoyed both of those other books and was looking forward to the end of series, especially given the ending of the second novel. Unfortunately, I feel like A Duke's Promise kind of jumped the trolley when it came to the ultimate conclusion of the mystery that first brought Alexandria and the Duke together.

Unfortunately, I can't get too deeply into the reasons why I didn't like this aspect of the novel here because it would be a plot spoiler.The best way to explain it in vague terms is to say that the book took an almost Indiana Jones type twist without a fully developed back story and the detailed science to actually justify the things that are discovered and/or that happen. I don't view the book too harshly for that because there is only a limited amount of space to explore this in a book series more focused on the romance between two people and the circumstances that bring them together than the minutiae of scientific detail...but it is a little bit of a buzz kill after having went through the other two books. I honestly would have preferred a "treasure" a bit more run of the mill.

Kylie Minogue: The Abbey Road Sessions -- a Review

I still remember the first time I heard about Kylie Minogue -- "I Just Can't Get You Out of My Head" was washing ashore here in the U.S. and vh1 was discussing Kylie's return to popularity on this continent with her first big hit since she released her version of "The Locomotion" in the 80s. Because of my love for this song and Kylie's other pop tracks, I was delighted to receive the opportunity to review The Abbey Road Sessions since this CD (or mp3 album, if you prefer) contains stripped down versions of many of Kylie's biggest hits from her 25 years in the music business.

Ironically, I have ended up enjoying getting to know the Kylie Minogue songs that never made it big here on the U.S. radio instead of listening to toned down favorites. My favorite cut on the album ended up being "Better the Devil You Know" while one of my most-played Kylie songs from past years, "Slow," felt a little awkward without the driving dance beat.

I'm pretty sure I'm not alone when it comes to getting to know Minogue when "Can't Get You Out of My Head" exploded in the early 2000s, so I'm sure many of you are probably curious to know how that tune turned out without the full complement of background music. I'm afraid to say it was kind of lackluster. The "Lalalalalalala" choruses throughout the song felt awkward without a need to dance.

The Director's Cut by Janice Thompson - a Book Review

I have featured the prior two volumes in Janice Thompson's Backstage Pass trilogy here on MiscMayzee, but The Director's Cut takes the cake for the series.

I always liked Tia in the prior volumes and was really hoping to see her as the "star" in her her own volume, and was glad that she was able to take "center stage" in this book. (Yes, I'm all done with the puns now).

I think I ended up liking this book best because it was a bit more serious and had a more realistic humor than the other volumes which relied on a lot of kitsch and easy laughs instead of deeper character development and refined humor. While this book does go for a few cheap laughs and the easy mainstay of an uber-perky personality and limelight loving family member (in this case a sister), it does work beyond that to make both Tia and Jason interesting and fun to get to know better.

I would definitely recommend this volume and the other two books in this series, Stars Collide and Hello, Hollywood, but you can read this book first or solely and not really miss the back story behind the other characters...you are told all you need to know about them in this book.

The Director's Cut is available as of June 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this volume.

Mary Magdalene by Diana Wallis Taylor - a Blog Tour

I loved Diana Wallis Taylor's book on Martha, sister of Lazarus, from last year, so I was really excited to see that she was the author of an upcoming release focused on Mary Magdalene - an oft maligned (much like Martha) female in the New Testament. I ended up reading Mary Magdalene in a day because I really could not wait to find out the ending to the larger story Taylor crafted within the book's pages.


Most churches just don't know what to do about Mary. Some see her as a prostitute, others see her as the potential wife of Jesus while still others barely acknowledge her place in the history present in the New Testament. In this book, the woman is done justice in the fictional narrative as she is all too human...like all of us.

In this story, Mary's healing is not a turning away from a life of sins of the flesh but rather the casting out of demons that have been haunting her since she was kidnapped from her home at a young age. I loved and appreciated that Taylor made this aspect of the book very relatable by describing Mary's mental condition with symptoms we might call migraines, schizophrenia, manic depressive, etc. None of it was the truly bizarre contortions and freakishness of Exorcist movies or the most horribly illustrated tract you've ever read. It was, again, real.

Unfortunately, a lot of this book is sad (even beyond the obvious sorrow one feels upon reading an account of the crucifixion). Mary and her family suffer several tragedies beyond her kidnapping and a few sweet moments are rapidly followed by sorrow. However, these sorrows create the path that allows Mary to travel forth with the Savior and Apostles up until the death of Jesus and the Pentecost.

Mary Magdalene was very well written and my copy is sitting beside me at my desk even now with 4 Post-It Note sticky tabs sticking out of it marking passages I found particularly uplifting or wanted to reread in my Bible. If you loved Martha, you will love this book even though the feeling you experience at the end will likely be markedly different.

Mary Magdalene is available as of June 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this volume.