The Wrong Game: sports romance with fun banter and angsty drama

The Wrong Game by Kandi Steiner is a sports romance with angst and spicy romance. Gemma Manchini is a diehard football fan. She bought season tickets to the Chicago Bears as a gift for her late husband. Reeling from his death and a secret she keeps heavily guarded, Gemma has zero interest in a relationship; however, in order to get her back into the dating scene, her best friend, Belle, comes up with a plan: take a new hot, preferably funny, single guy every week to the games. However, Bartender Zach Bowen offers to be a practice round for Gemma and she agrees. Gemma finds him infuriating, overbearing but undeniably gorgeous. She is still determined to keep her heart out of their arrangement. One night. One game. And he’s done. However, Zach wasn’t ready to step aside and decided to play a new game in order to show her he was worth taking a chance on. Will her plan play out? Will Zach win this game and her heart? 

I have been waiting to read this book ever since I saw an ad on Facebook and the premise intrigued me. When the chance came to read it, I dove right into it. I loved the football aspect from a fan’s perspective rather than a player. From the very beginning, Gemma is a woman who has been deeply hurt and yet has to play the grieving widow for the sake of her late husband’s family. From the opening chapter to the ending page, Gemma goes through an amazing growth and my heart broke for her when she finally hit rock bottom and shattered. However, my favorite character, by far, was Zach. He was a man who has a heart for Gemma and will do all he can to prove himself to her. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was worth the wait. I read it through the night as I could not put it down. If you enjoy sports romance with some spice, I highly recommend The Wrong Game. 

The Wrong Game is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook

Perfect Imperfections: finding love among the struggles of life and uncertainties

Perfect Imperfections by Mariah Ankenman is a story of finding love among the struggles of life and uncertainties. Ellie Clark deals with anxiety steaming from her OCD compulsions which makes forming relationships difficult. As one of the head aviary keepers at the Sunlight Zoo, she enjoys spending her life around the birds who don’t judge her idiosyncrasies. Her life is about to change in ways she never imagined one fateful day as she makes the split second decision to rescue a child who falls into the penguin pool. In the aftermath, she finds an unusual bond with Charlotte, the young girl, and an attraction to her handsome father, Sullivan. Dr Sullivan Green has focused his life on his medical practice and raising his daughter since his ex-wife left them both. He is taken by surprise at the yearning he feels when near Ellie. As they began to spend time together, the attraction between them built until passion ignited. However, when the ugliness of their lives interfere, they must find the courage to take a risk on love. 

Perfect Imperfections is the type of story that takes you by surprise. When I started the book, I was intrigued as the story jumps into the event which brings them together. It started to slow down a bit and I wondered if I even wanted to continue. But I did and I am so glad I did. It speeds up once Ellie and Sullivan acknowledge their feelings. Once it did, the book was hard to put down. I enjoyed all the characters from Ellie, Sullivan and Charlotte to the supporting characters of Cam, Ellie’s best friend, and Gavin, Sullivan’s younger brother. The story was so sweet and oh so emotional. There were multiple scenes that I cried as I read. I cried sad tears. My heart broke with the characters as they deal with the ugliness of life. I cried happy tears and I closed the book with a smile. The banter was great and made me laugh and smile. The heartfelt moments made my heart melt. The depiction of mental health, especially OCD, was eye opening. I highly, highly recommend Perfect Imperfections. 

Perfect Imperfections is available in paperback and eBook

The Promise Between Us: a powerful story of life with a mental illness

The Promise between Us by Barbara Claypole White is the story of one family torn apart by mental illness and how they come back together for the well-being of another. The story opens with Katelynn McDonald as a young mother of 7 month old, Maisie, who has been having very intrusive thoughts about hurting her daughter. Fearing that she would actually hurt her, Katelynn runs and disappears from her daughter’s life. Fast forward 9 years later, Katelynn, now called Katie, has been dealing with OCD and a chance meeting puts her face to face with her daughter and she fears her daughter suffers from the same mental illness. Her ex-husband, Callum, refuses to listen to Katie’s fears until one day when he notices the same behaviors in Maisie as Katie used to do so long ago. Can they come together enough to help Maisie? Are there more secrets buried deep which need to surface before they can fully heal?

The Promise between Us is a beautiful and powerful story. It was difficult to read at times, not because the story lagged, but because Ms. Claypole White’s description of OCD. The mental anguish that the compulsions cause the individual as they try to fight the irrational thoughts. It is a powerful story of how healing can come from facing our deepest fears and how the people we love can be our best medicine. I enjoyed every character and the conflict and resolution fit very well. I enjoyed The Promise between Us as it gives an in-depth, no-holds-bar look into the lives and thoughts of those who suffer from OCD. I highly recommend it!

The Promise between Us

is available in paperback and eBook

Hoarding: more than not just taking out the trash

When A&E premiered their show Hoarders (2009-2013), many people didn’t know about hoarding. The show as well as TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive (2010-present) has opened people’s eyes to this devastating disorder. Hoarding is the persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions regardless of their actual value. This behavior often has damaging effects on the person’s emotional and physical well-being and many aspects of his or her life. Commonly hoarded items include: newspapers, magazines, paper and plastic bags, cardboard boxes, food and clothing. Some people will even hoard pets causing dangerous conditions for them and the animals. Hoarding can often be associated with psychological disorders and often needs professional help. A hoarders’ reasons and behaviors are very different from a collectors.

The symptoms and behaviors of hoarding are: the inability to throw away possession, even when the item has no value (i.e. empty pizza boxes). Hoarders suffer severe anxiety when attempting to discard items and have great difficulty categorizing and organizing items. Hoarders are also indecisive about what to keep and where to put things and feel distress or being overwhelmed or embarrassed by possessions. Hoarders are auspicious of other people touching or moving items, even stealing items. They fear of running out of an item or needing it in the future. They will often have obsessive thoughts or perform obsessive actions such as checking the trash for accidently discarded items. There is often functional impairment of the home including the loss of livable space. Hoarders become social isolated and their hoarding will often create family or marital discord, financial difficulties and health hazards.

The most common reasons for hoarding are often simple. Hoarders often believe that the items will be useful for be valuable in the future. The items have sentimental value and the hoarder believes he or she will forget something or someone is the item is gone. The item is unique or irreplaceable. Hoarding may present on its own but it also can present with three psychological disorders. First, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness and efficiency. Hoarders with OCPD will have a hard time parting with items. Second, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts that produce uneasiness, apprehension, fear or worry (obsessions) with repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing the anxiety produced by the obsessions (compulsions). Hoarders with OCD will have an obsession which they will hoard in order to deal with the anxiety. Lastly, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized with difficulty staying focused and paying attention, difficulty controlling behaviors and hyperactivity. Hoarders with ADHD have a hard time focusing on the task of organizing their items.

Hoarding is different from collecting in that hoarders will have often have a sense of embarrassment with their hoard while a collector will have a sense of pride for his or her collection. Hoarders will often be uncomfortable with people seeing their hoard while collectors will have joy and organizing and display the collection for others viewing. Hoarders will often be ashamed when additional items are added to their hoard while collectors will feel satisfaction with adding to their collections. Hoarders will have clutter at the expense of their livable space while collectors will have a designated place for their collections.

In conclusion, hoarding is a dangerous, psychological disorder that requires professional help. If you know anyone or suspects someone is becoming a hoarder, please seek help. Hoarding has psychological implications that require help. There are nationwide organizations which could help with hoarding. Please check your local area for help. Hoarding is different from collecting and can lead to dangerous conditions for the hoarder, his or her family and even the neighborhood.