Blackberry Mojito

This is my favourite, go to refreshing mojito, which is perfect for the heat wave we are experiencing.

You will need Havanaclub rum, blackberries, lemon, mint, and blackberry bubly sparkling water  (optional honey or simple syrup) 

Muddle blackberries and mint, shake together juice from half a lemon, four shots of rum with ice. Pour over muddles berries. Top with bubbly, stir and enjoy. (This makes 2 drinks). Optional you can add a teaspoon or simple syrup or honey in shaker but I prefer it little bit more bitter.

Free (or fairly inexpensive) things to do in Edmonton and area this Summer

Summer is officially here so I gathered a list of thing to do in Edmonton and area (for free or fairly inexpensive): 

Free activities at EPL (kids birth to 3) including baby lap time and sing, learn, play.

Family photo shoot at a studio for $10.99 (you get a 15 min session in studio and all the photos).

Visit Alberta Legislature and get a tour. The tours are free, and the groups are perfect for exploring and hanging out.

Picnic with family at a park (Rundle, Borden, Terwillegar, Victoria park to name a few) - pack a blanket, snacks and some toys and enjoy!

Day trip to a lake (Buffalo lake, Seba, Alberta Beach or Mons). While these require driving the beaches are free, so you can bring food, toys and enjoy sunshine. 

Head to a farmers market (from Strathcona, Callingwood, 124 grand market) - pick up some fresh produce and treats and hang out. 

Visit at The University of Alberta Observatory on Thursday for free. Access is free every Thursday and great way to do something different.

Take a free Bus Transportation to Elk Island National Park and explore. Busses run from end of June through Summer. Perfect way to explore the park, see some animals and explore. 

Check out Queen Mary’s Night Market (June to September), it’s free and they have lots of vendors and music.

How are you spending your Summer?

#bookofthemonth Funny Story by Emily Henry

Funny Story by Emily Henry

If you read Beach Read and love it, this is for you. Its a captivating read, I loved it all the way to the end.

"A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé Peter told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it…right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: Stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads —Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex…right?"

#bookofthemonh Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez

This is a perfect Summer read. This book has it all: comedy, romance, trauma, heartbreak, and many truths about life and love. So many touching quotes that make this book perfect for annotating.

"A sharp and scintillating summer novel that will make readers laugh out loud and cry happy tears from the New York Times bestselling author of Yours Truly.

Justin has a curse, and thanks to a Reddit thread, it's now all over the internet. Every woman he dates goes on to find their soul mate the second they break up. When a woman slides into his DMs with the same problem, they come up with a plan: They'll date each other and break up. Their curses will cancel each other’s out, and they’ll both go on to find the love of their lives. It’s a bonkers idea… and it just might work.

Emma hadn't planned that her next assignment as a traveling nurse would be in Minnesota, but she and her best friend agree that dating Justin is too good of an opportunity to pass up, especially when they get to rent an adorable cottage on a private island on Lake Minnetonka.

It's supposed to be a quick fling, just for the summer. But when Emma's toxic mother shows up and Justin has to assume guardianship of his three siblings, they're suddenly navigating a lot more than they expected–including catching real feelings for each other. What if this time Fate has actually brought the perfect pair together?"

#bookofthemonth Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

I don't remember last time I got though a book so fast, and with a new born this is such a big feat! They had me at vampires and werewolf.

"A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha Werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis.

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again...

Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf."

#bookofthemonth House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

 

House of Flame and Shadow by Sarah J. Maas

We all know my love for book series. This is the third book in her popular Crescent City series, House of Flame and Shadow continues Maas’ epic tale of sexy fallen angels and the mortals who love them. I recommend all 3 books but this one might be my favorite so far. 

"The stunning third book in the sexy, action-packed Crescent City series, following the global bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath.

Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust.

Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.

In this sexy, breathtaking sequel to the #1 bestsellers House of Earth and Blood and House of Sky and Breath, Sarah J. Maas's Crescent City series reaches new heights as Bryce and Hunt's world is brought to the brink of collapse-with its future resting on their shoulders."

#bookofthemonth The Book of Love by Kelly Link

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

This book has mixed review people either loved it or hated it, I on the side that liked it. The book is long, so its a commitment but I started reading this before I gave birth where I didn't do much except read. If you are reading it, a hundred pages in or so its when it gets good; it's when things become more clear, you will get wrapped up in the story.

"The Book of Love showcases Kelly Link at the height of her powers, channeling potent magic and attuned to all varieties of love—from friendship to romance to abiding family ties—with her trademark compassion, wit, and literary derring-do. Readers will find joy (and a little terror) and an affirmation that love goes on, even when we cannot.

Late one night, Laura, Daniel, and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are.

With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance—and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks; while they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. In the end, there will be winners and there will be losers.

But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas. As Laura, Daniel, and Mo grapple with the pieces of the lives they left behind, and Laura’s sister, Susannah, attempts to reconcile what she remembers with what she fears, these mysterious others begin to arrive, engulfing their community in danger and chaos, and it becomes imperative that the teens solve the mystery of their deaths to avert a looming disaster."