Book Review: Undeniably Yours

Undeniably Yours
By
Becky Wade

About the Book:

 When her father dies unexpectedly, Meg Cole is thrust into running the family’s hugely successful oil company. Even though she has zero interest in the oil industry, she must spend hours and hours learning about it and how to keep the company and her father’s ranch running smoothly. It’s at Whispering Creek ranch that she meets Bo, the man who runs her father’s thoroughbred horse farm. Horses are another thing Meg has zero interest and she lets Bo know that she will be shutting down the thoroughbred business. Though they are determined not to like each other, Meg and Bo find themselves falling fast for each other. Just when things are going well, Meg’s sociopathic ex-husband makes an appearance and tries to ruin Meg’s life for the second time. All the while, Meg is learning to trust God more and more and to stop worrying so much about what others, especially her family, think of her. Just when she thinks her father’s death and the events that occur following it might overwhelm her, she finds that they’ve all been a part of a bigger plan.

Check out the trailer:

My Thoughts:

You can’t go wrong with cowboys, Texas and romance; it’s like a recipe for a good story. When you add a sociopathic ex-husband into the mix, it makes the story even more interesting.  I really enjoyed this new book by Becky Wade; she took what could have been another run-of-the-mill Christian romance novel and made it so much more than that. The element of suspense she added kept it interesting and kept me turning the pages. I noticed that this book is being marketed as book #1 in the Porter Family series, I can’t wait to follow the Porter family through Becky’s future novels!

Disclaimer:

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for this review. All thoughts are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

Buy the Book:

If you’re interested in checking out this book you can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as many other retailers.

Book Review: Lonestar Angel

Lonestar Angel
By
Colleen Coble

Is it just me or does the title Lonestar Angel make you think this book is going to be just another romantic cowboy story?  This book is all that and so much more!

Clay and Eden Larson’s young marriage fell apart when their infant daughter was kidnapped and thought dead. Five years later all that changes when Clay pops back into Eden’s life with the news that their divorce was never finalized and that he suspects their daughter is actually alive and he knows where to find her. At the drop of a hat, Eden goes with Clay on an interesting adventure to find her; they encounter Columbian drug lords, face demons of the past and an uncertain future. Will they actually find their daughter?  If so, will they both survive the journey they’re on to get her? If they do, what will their future as a fractured family look like?

Colleen Coble crafts a beautiful story in Lonestar Angel, the 4th book in her Lonestar series. Each chapter holds new twists and turns, keeping the reader engaged and eager to see what happens next. As usual, I stayed up way to late reading this book night after night; I just couldn’t put it down. Previously I reviewed Coble’s novel, The Lightkeepers Ball, and found it just as engaging and a pleasure to read. She combines romance, mystery and suspense seamlessly. I look forward to reading more of her work.

If you’re interested in checking out this book you can find it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, as well as many other retailers.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for this review. All thoughts are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.

 

Two firsts…..

When my cousin got engaged last New Year’s, it was quickly decided that I would make the wedding cake as a gift to the happy couple!    The only problem…..I’d never made a cake that big before…..and I definitely had never made a wedding cake before!!!!

Once we figured out an approximate number of guests and the color scheme, I quickly got to work sketching out some ideas.  Here’s what I came up with:

The cake tiers would be 12″, 10″, 8″, and 6″.  It would serve approximately 100-125 people depending on which chart you’re using when figuring that out. It would be covered in Satin Ice fondant and the accents would be a mixture of Satin Ice Vanilla and Satin Ice Dark Chocolate.

A few months before the wedding, when I knew I’d have some extra visitors at my house to help eat some cake, I got to work making the practice cake.  There was NO WAY I was going to make this cake without having some practice under my belt.  And it’s a good thing I did because this is how it turned out:

(click on the picture for a closer look to get the full picture)

Not the ugliest cake you’ve ever seen, but definitely not what a bride thinks of when they picture their wedding cake!  I was afraid that if I put this on a cake table at the wedding, someone would turn me into Cake Wrecks!

I definitely learned a lot from my practice.  I realized just how important 4″ tiers are when you are making a stacked cake, how important it is to make sure you center the plates under the tiers just right, that a 12″ cake board under a 12″ cake looks a little off, and just how hard it can be to work with fondant in August in Maui! I also realized how important it is to use a fondant/gumpaste mixture when making bows; you can roll that mixture much thinner making the bow MUCH lighter and quicker to dry!! The thing that bugged me the most was the cardboard cake boards showing and the gaps between the layers. 

Over the next few months, I had a chance to practice some more on some different cakes.  I taught myself a few new tricks, gained some more confidence and was able to produce a beautiful cake for my cousin’s wedding and I did all while also being Maid of Honor, mother of the Flower Girl and Ring Bearer, and helping to do a lot of the planning and coordinating!  This is the final result:

                                               

I’m very proud of this cake!

This cake is also in the background of my picture on the right!

So, first wedding cake….wondering what the other first is?????

I’ll tell ya……

My first Groom’s cake!!!!  My cousin’s husband is from Texas and a big Longhorns fan (Hook ‘Em Horns!!!), so we planned a surprise cake to serve at the rehearsal dinner.  I did a little research on Cake Central, borrowed some ideas, and this is what I came up with:

 

This cake was harder than it looks!  I cut out all the shapes using an Exact-o knife!  No cookie cutters on this one!  The groom really liked this cake and was totally surprised.  A bunch of his family and friends had flown in from Texas and they really like it also.

I’m trying to get some stuff together to do a post of my favorite things; there might even be some Wilton items on the list!  haha! Hopefully I can pull that together in the next couple weeks or so!

If you’re interested in serving charts for cakes, here are a few to check out:

Earlene’s Cake Serving Chart

Wilton Cake Serving Chart

Country Kitchen Serving Chart