February 2016 – Page 3 – Concert Katie

Book Review: The Millionaire Makeover

Katie February 12, 2016 0 Comments

millionairemakeover It has been a while since I read a romance novel and when I saw that The Millionaire Makeover was about a computer programming female, I knew I had to check it out! It was a bummer that there was really almost no mention of any computer programming stuff in the book though 🙁

The book is about Khloe who is trying to find a date to make the guy at work she is crushing on jealous. Her best friend bids $20,000 on a mystery bachelor at a charity auction and Khloe is crushed when she realizes it is Niall Hunter. He was her brother’s best friend and took her virginity 3 years ago after her brother Michael died and disappeared from her life.

At first, she does not want anything to do with Niall, but Niall is willing to help her out because he feels bad about what he had done – he only left because he found a letter from Michael saying that he should stay away from Khloe.

Of course, the two have all sorts of chemistry and Khloe begins falling for Niall again, even though she figures that he will break her heart again. The two were very frustrating to me because both are in love with each other but it seemed to take so long for either of them to finally come out and say it!!

Will Khloe find her forever guy in the guy at work? Or was he right next to her all along?

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Plain-Jane computer programmer Khloe Richardson needs a date—one to make the prince of her dreams jealous. Maybe then he’ll finally see her as a desirable swan and not the ugly duckling in the second office from the left.

But when she bids on a bachelor at a charity auction, the man she wins is millionaire Niall Hunter—who once made intense, passionate love to her and then left without a word. She’s determined not to let her guard down again—among other things—around the infamous Irish lothario.

Niall never imagined his penance for one hot-as-hell night with his best friend’s little sister would be transforming her from a shy wallflower to a sultry siren. Helping her attract another man is torture…especially when he promised his friend he’d stay away. Plus, she wants forever, and he’s not a forever kind of guy. But Niall can’t stop wanting her. Can’t stop touching her. Can’t stop, period. And damn if he can remember why he has to…

Book Review

Book Review: Love Struck

Katie February 12, 2016 0 Comments

lovestruck Love Struck was one of those books that I got so into, I couldn’t quite get back into reality after I finished it. This book had no write up on NetGalley when I chose to review it, I simply picked it because the cover had a guy holding a guitar on it and you all know I like to read and review music related books. This was a case where judging the book by its cover worked out for me.

Love Struck starts out where we meet Lacy. She works in a recording studio and is trying to record a new album but has not been able to write a song in over a year. Still haunted by her fiance’s death, she is trying to find anything that can help her get out of this funk and she seems to find it in a group called Song Writers Anonymous or SoWriAn. To keep thinks anonymous, everyone on the site knows her only as LoveCoda. She has been chatting with a guy named FolxNotDead## (I think it was either 27 or 24 or perhaps both were mentioned in the book) and he has been sharing songs with her and she has been helping him improve them. Folx’s band gets booked to go on a tour so they think that their time together will be few and far between, but they decide to meet on December 24th and Lacy’s sister’s wedding where Folx will be her date.

Meanwhile, one of Lacy’s coworkers books Lacy on a tour with The Blue Hills. Love tells Folx that she is also going on tour but they agree to keep in touch. Since things on the site are supposed to be anonymous, neither one of them tells each other where the tour is going, what the bands are, etc.

So it is no surprise when it turns out that Folx is one of the members of the band that Lacy is touring with. She immediately hits if off with one of the guys in the band – Eli. I mean, they really hit it off. And Lacy is able to write a song for the first time in a year! Then she over hears the band singing a song that she knows the lyrics to – but they had never performed it on tour yet. It is one of Folx’s songs and she becomes convinced that the lead singer, Jax, has to be Folx and is torn because she is really starting to like Eli.

Of course, it seems like the two are never going to figure out that they are in love with each other in real life AND online because Jax lies and says that he writes all the bands songs, when it really is Eli.

A rather unfortunate accident near the end of the book makes it seem like Eli and Lacy won’t end up with their happily ever after. They say if you love someone, let them go… but will these two be able to find a way back to each other in the end?

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Welcome to a seductive world where two solo artists combine their talents-and their hearts-to make beautiful music together…

SHE’S GETTING INTO THE GROOVE
Lacy Dawson is a young singer-songwriter with a record deal, a studio gig, and a serious case of writer’s block. After looking for love songs in all the wrong places, she finds inspiration at an online support group called Song Writers Anonymous. Thanks to one mysterious member who motivates her and inspires her, Lacy’s career is back on track. But is she ready to meet her sexy musical muse…face to face?

HE MAKES HER HEART SKIP A BEAT
Eli is definitely interested in hooking up with Lacy, aka “LoveCoda.” But between writing her new album and his band’s success, they can’t find the time to face the music-or each other-about their burgeoning online romance. All that changes when Eli and Lucy get booked on tour together. In person, the attraction is all too real and explosive. They both should walk away, but once they are in each other’s arms, there is no turning back…

“A fun, fresh, and sassy hit.”-RT Book Reviews on Miss Match

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: John Mayer 7/14/07

Katie February 11, 2016 0 Comments

Headliner: John Mayer
Opener(s): Brett Dennen, Ben Folds
Venue: Meadows Music Theater Hartford
Cost: $66

Setlist:
No Such Thing
Belief
Good Love Is On The Way
I Don’t Trust Myself
Neon
Dreaming with a Broken Heart
Waiting on the World To Change
Vultures
Bigger Than My Body
I Don’t Need No Doctor
Why Georgia
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Your Body is a Wonderland
I’m Gonna Find Another You

Recap: My Mom went to the show with me because none of my friends were able to. She ended up loving Brett Dennen who was the first opener because he didn’t wear shoes on stage. Ben Folds also opened and the only photo I took of him was the crazy one below where he looks like he might actually be part butterfly. This was a funny show, with John joking with one of his guitarists about how sometimes he throws picks at people and they don’t know where they landed, but they ended up sticking to their foreheads because they are sweaty. (See photo below of demonstration)

Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: Hanson 7/21/07

Katie February 11, 2016 0 Comments

Headliner: Hanson
Opener(s): Keaton Simons
Venue: Avalon Boston
Cost: $33

Setlist:

Great Divide
Hey
Been There Before
Crazy Beautiful
Hole In My Life
The Walk
Strong Enough to Break
MMMBop
Yearbook
Blue Sky
If Only
Running Man
Let Love Rule
Your Illusion
Go
Georgia
Penny and Me
Runaway Run
Lost Without Each Other
Something Going Round
Never Been To Spain
Watch Over Me

Recap: This show was not originally planned, but when another friend expressed interest in going, it became “Hey Katie will probably go with you” and so I did! Since it was last minute we didn’t make any ADA plans but the person letting us in at the door grabbed me and escorted me to the section. My 2 friends I was with wanted to dance and were told they were not allowed to stand in the ADA area so they went off to another area and just came back to check on me here and there. I didn’t bring my camera in at all for this one and I think at the time I may have had 1 awful cell phone photo that is now long gone! The Avalon has since become the House of Blues Boston.

Product Review

Product Review: Up24 vs Up2

Katie February 10, 2016 0 Comments

Last year I decided I wanted to get something to more accurate track the steps I was taking at work than just my phone. In May, I ended up buying the UP24 on Amazon. I set up the app on my phone and I was off. I liked that in addition to tracking my steps, it also kept track of how long I was sleeping and that was very helpful in figuring out when to go to bed to make sure I could be somewhat productive the next day even when I had to wake up early.

There were a few things that I didn’t really like about the UP24 which were:

Remembering to tell it I went to sleep by pushing a button
When you charge it, you have to remove a cap that can easily be misplaced
It easily could come off my wrist (mostly when retrieving snacks from vending machines)

For 8 months I really had no problems with the UP24. It did seem to lose some of the early data from when I first had it which was annoying as I liked to go back and see my most active days, but oh well. I wasn’t sure it was going to survive the trip to Jamaica. The button where you push to let it know you went to sleep or switch modes seemed to be pushing on to the band in strange ways and it had a bump in it and I figured over time, whatever was inside would just pop right out the side of the band.

Well, I was right in that there was a problem in Jamaica, but not the one I thought. The button you press popped off at some point and I didn’t notice, so now it was lost. I could still manage to push the button if I stuck my finger in the band, but I figured getting a new button was the way to go.

When I went to the Jawbone website to figure out what to do to get a new button, it said first I needed to update my Firmware. I had tried this before the trip because the update supposedly made the charge last 14 days instead of 7. None of my computers recognized the band when it was plugged in and when I contacted customer support they said they would send me an Up2 as a replacement since I was still under warranty.

I was bummed that the Up2 was black because I loved my orange (persimmon?) UP24. But immediately when I pulled it out of the packaging I knew that most of the problems that I had with the 24 were resolved with the 2.

There is no cap on it for charging
There is no button to press to let it know you went to sleep
The clasp keeps it tighter on my wrist

Another feature of the UP2 is that you don’t need to tell it when you went to sleep, it just “knows”. Most of the reviews I read say that it is typically off about 30 minutes for them, and after a couple weeks or so I think that mine is off by about the same as well. Laying in bed watching TV before going to sleep seems to come across as being asleep.

One of the downsides is that it seems to take forever to let me know how long I actually slept, sometimes several refreshes on the app (Which is a different app than I had used with the 24, but it seemed to import all the info from the old band) The 24 usually would immediately let me know “Good Morning!” and how much I had slept the night before. This obviously isn’t a deal breaker as the update does eventually come through.

I’m also not a fan of how you charge the UP2. The up “balances” magnetically on the charging USB, which is fine if you’re at a desktop computer and it’s plugged into a tower not near anything. Charging it on my laptop doesn’t work so well. I also have a USB port near me when I sleep and found that I knocked it over during the night when I was charging it and it fell off the charger.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the UP2 replacement and will just have to work through the things that are not as appealing to me.

American Idol

Idol Posts Are Back!

Katie February 9, 2016 0 Comments

IdolThoughts

It’s been a few years since I last did weekly recaps of American Idol. With this being the final season, I figured I’d bring them back. Posts will be done on Tuesday to recap the previous weeks performances. This week begins the Top 24 performances and my first post will be on February 16th. Here is the schedule for the rest of the season:

– Wednesday, February 10th: 8-9 PM ET/PT – Top 24 Part 1 Semi-Finals, 12 Perform
– Thursday, February 11th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Top 24 Part 2 Semi-Finals, Judges Vote
(My recap February 16th)
– Wednesday, February 17th: 8-9 PM ET/PT – Top 24 Part 3 Semi-Finals, 12 Perform
– Thursday, February 18th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Top 24 Part 4 Semi-Finals, Top 14 Revealed
(My recap February 23)
– Wednesday, February 24th: 8-19 PM ET/PT – Top 14 Eliminations & Wild Card performances
– Thursday, February 25th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Wild Card Results & Top 10 Performances
(My recap March 1)
– Thursday, March 3rd: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Finalists (March 8)
– Thursday, March 10th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Finalists (March 15)
– Thursday, March 17th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Finalists (March 22)
– Thursday, March 24th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Finalists (March 29)
– Thursday, March 31st: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Finalists (April 5)
– Tuesday, April 5th: 8-9 PM ET/PT – Idol Retrospective
– Wednesday, April 6th: 8-9 PM ET/PT – Finale performances
– Thursday, April 7th: 8-10 PM ET/PT – Series Finale! (April 12, or sooner!)

Book Review

Book Review: Call Me, Maybe

Katie February 9, 2016 0 Comments

callmemaybe

Review-Banner

When I pick books to read based on song titles, it is usually hit or miss. Call Me, Maybe was definitely a hit. The story starts with Clementine Daly and her brother Honor flying to California from Chicago. Clementine has her phone charging and Honor grabs it for her before they board the plane, assures her he turned it on airplane mode and tossed it in the bottom of her bag. When she lands, she finds all sorts of frantic texts on the phone – from herself!? It turns out that Honor had grabbed someone else’s phone instead of Clemetine’s. Worried about revealing who she is to this mystery man, Justin, she doesn’t tell him that she is from the wealthy and powerful Daly family and doesn’t offer to buy them both new phones even though Honor suggests that she should, trying to keep the fact that she has some wealthy people’s numbers in her phone secret.

Justin and Clementine first agree to let each other know of any messages that they receive and plan to meet up later in the week once they are both back in Chicago. Meanwhile, the two seem to form a close relationship over the phone. But when they meet up, Clemetine still continues to keep her identity secret, and you know that it has got to be only a matter of time before Justin figures it out. When Justin invites Clementine to be his date to a fancy party and walks in to see her Grandparents also in attendance, she knows it is only a matter of time.

The two seemed to have formed a pretty solid relationship in the short amount of time they have known each other, but will it be able to sustain the news that Clementine has been lying to Justin the whole time she has known him?

As I mentioned before, I found this book to be a hit for me. I really liked the first half more than the second half but that may have more to do with the fact that I had to stop reading for a bit and once I have to stop reading when I am gaining momentum I never can seem to get back to the “place” where I once was with a book. Frustrating, and also why I try to read books all in one sitting! I definitely recommend this one though if you are a romance reader.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

“Ellie Cahill is definitely one to watch!” raves bestselling author Cora Carmack, and this steamy, upbeat modern romance about connecting in all the best ways proves it once again.

Clementine Daly knows she’s the black sheep. Her wealthy, powerful family has watched her very closely since she almost got caught in an embarrassing scandal a few years ago. So when Clementine’s sent on a mission to live up to the Daly name, politely declining isn’t an option. Of course, the last thing she does before boarding the plane is to grab a stranger’s phone by mistake—leaving the hunky journalist with her phone. Soon his sexy voice is on the line, but he doesn’t know her real name, or her famous pedigree—which is just the way Clementine likes it.

Despite all the hassles, Justin Mueller is intrigued to realize that the beautiful brown-eyed girl he met at the airport is suddenly at his fingertips. They agree to exchange phones when they’re both back in town, but after a week of flirty texts and wonderfully intimate conversations, Justin doesn’t want to let her go. The only problem? It turns out that Clemetine has been lying to him about, well, everything. Except for the one thing two people can’t fake, the only thing that matters: The heat between them is for real.

Link to Follow Tour: http://www.tastybooktours.com/2015/12/call-me-maybe-by-ellie-cahill.html

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25894369-call-me-maybe

Buy Links: Amazon | B & N |Google Play| iTunes | Kobo

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Excerpt under the cut!

Music Monday: Parachute The Way It Was

Katie February 8, 2016 0 Comments

White Dress
You and Me
Something To Believe In
Forever and Always
What I Know
American Secrets
Kiss Me Slowly
Halfway
Philadelphia
What I Know (Live)

My second Parachute album purchase was 2011’s “The Way It Was”, with how much I loved Overnight, I had high expectations for the album that was released before it. This album seemed to be a bit more laid back then Overnight, a little more mellow some slower more acoustic sounding tracks. But either way, I loved it almost as much as Overnight.

The first album I listened to I felt like they sounded like someone else but I couldn’t place it. I was able to place it on this second album – they have a sound similar to Action Item, but better. And I guess better in that they are not possibly defunct.

Book Review

Book Review: We Just Clicked

Katie February 5, 2016 0 Comments

wejustclicked We Just Clicked is about Erin Cochrane. When we first meet her, she is planning her wedding to Tyson and lending an ear to her best friend Bex and hearing all about her adventures in online dating. But then Tyson decides that he doesn’t want to marry Erin and he doesn’t even want to be with her anymore so she is forced to move out of his house and back in with her Mom. Bex convinces Erin to make an online dating profile.

Erin goes on a few bad dates and a few really bad ones – like the one with the guy who took her to Pizza Hut and told her she could only drink tap water because he was treating and couldn’t afford drinks… and just when she decides that it is time to delete her account, she gets a message from a guy named Joe.

Joe is a photographer and Erin doesn’t realize he is a celebrity photographer at first and thinks he is just joking around when he mentions having worked with celebrities. The two really seem to hit it off, but with Joe away all the time for work and Erin reading gossip magazines she thinks that something may be going on with his ex and calls things off. But Erin’s Mom is convinced that they are meant to be and meddles a bit…

Definitely a fun read and I always like reading about others dating site horror stories (and I have a few of my own as well!) This was my travel read and I don’t think I could have picked anything better.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Erin Cochrane loves the gossip and the countless bizarre stories about her best friend Bex’ adventures with online dating. Not that she’d ever sign up for the site herself. Erin’s far too busy planning her dream wedding to her gorgeous fiancé, Tyson.

But when Tyson decides that he is not ready for marriage, Erin’s world is turned upside down. Forced to move back in with her eccentric mother, things couldn’t get any worse. Thrust back into the singles’ scene, could online dating be the escape Erin needs from it all? Or will it be just another disaster?

From stalkers to cheapskates, Erin feels as though she’s become a magnet for every loser around, until she opens one message that changes everything.

An intriguing novel about modern dating and unexpected encounters that will keep you entertained right up to the very last page.

Book Review

Book Review: Little Bo Peep and Her Bad, Bad Sheep

Katie February 5, 2016 0 Comments

Little Bo Peep and Her Bad Bad Sheep is a Mother Goose Hullabaloo. You see, while the narrator is trying to tell the story of Little Bo Peep and how she has lost her sheep, there are something like 40 other nursery rhymes all going on at the same time and things get a little hectic. See if you can spot the other rhymes throughout the illustrations. There’s a guide at the end of the book just in case you’re not able to spot them all, with the rhymes included!

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep…as usual. What starts out as a simple nursery rhyme quickly derails into mayhem. Bo Peep can’t find her sheep, but readers will, and they’ll be coaching Bo from the sidelines as they watch her mischievous sheep swiping mittens from kittens, toppling Humpty Dumpty, and trampling Mary’s garden. Dozens of beloved Mother Goose characters have cameos…and all have run-ins with the sheep. Readers will giggle all the way to the end when at last they can finish the rhyme, as the sheep (sheepishly) come home, wagging their tails, of course.
For ages 4-8.
*Cameos from more than 20 traditional nursery rhymes make appearances and all rhymes are included at the end *Lots for young readers to seek and find on every page *Silly humor just right for readers who will spot Bo’s sheep before she does