March Empties 2025

 

It's been a while since I did an empties post! Oh wowzie I had finished a lot of things in the last few months. I do need to try and stay on top of cleaning and throwing these out. There were a few things that I liked and a few things I wouldn't try again. 

The Hair Toss Empower-mint Conditioner was a basic conditioner but I wouldn't mind trying the other scents. The conditioner came in a giant squeeze bottle and had a pleasant minty scent. It was very affordably priced even though it wasn't on sale.

Frankly Butter So Much Cream was so hydrating and it wasn't too heavy or greasy. I do wish that the dispenser was a bit better though. It had a small nozzle and sometimes I would oversqueeze and too much product would come out. 

The Goldfaden MD Supreme Serum was an overpriced waste. I didn't notice a single difference while applying this serum. Also the dropper didn't even work. The serum was too thick. For something this expensive I would expect a lot better. Even the bottle felt cheap and dingy.  

I love the Starface Moisture on Mars! It is one of the most lightweight and soothing cream. The cream isn't heavy and leaves skin feeling like butter. I am so disappointed that they don't make this cream anymore.

I love the Lancome Hydrazen serum oh wow this made my skin feel and look radiant. It gave me an amazing inner glow. It is so lightweight but it left my skin feeling like silk. I loved this.

Was there anything you finished this month that you liked?

Book Review - After the Shadows by Amanda Cabot

 

After the Shadows by Amanda Cabot is about a woman, Emily Leland, returning home after the death of her husband. Emily is hopeful to be returning home to Sweetwater Crossing after her abusive husband dies in a bar fight. She is hoping to reconnect with her sister, Louisa, and father. Emily receives more bad news instead of the warm welcome she was expecting.

She discovers that her father has died but the circumstances and story don’t add up to Emily. She believes there is more at play than the sheriff and the townspeople believe. To make matters worse, Louisa doesn’t believe that there was more to their father’s death. She feels that Emily is drumming up drama and shame for the family instead of accepting the circumstances of their father’s death.

Craig Ferguson is the new schoolteacher and also new to the area. He and his son moved to the Sweetwater Crossing after his wife died in an unexpected accident. As they enter the town, the house they are going to stay in burns down, leaving them homeless. Emily decides to turn her family home into a boarding house and welcomes Craig and his son into her home.

Louisa is upset that Emily just arrived in town and decides what to do with the family home without consulting her. She decides to leave town and learn the midwife trade in another town. Emily tries to make the best of the situation but feels lonely and lost. Craig who is still bereft from losing his beloved wife, understands her pain and the two find themselves growing closer. As the pair grow closer, a few strings of deaths occur which makes them suspicious that there might be a killer among them.

While the book does have some mystery pieces, I found it to be more of a cozy romance read. I felt like the murder mystery portion took a backseat to the budding romance between Craig and Emily. I thought the book was an okay read. I felt like the pacing was slow and I found my eyes glazing over a few times. The book does have one major twist, but it was mostly predictable. I would be open to reading more books by the author.

Book Review - Cabaret Macabre: A Locked-Room Mystery by Tom Mead

Cabaret Macabre: A Locked-Room Mystery by Tom Mead is about mystery novel about events that happened in the past and the consequences it has in the future. Victor Silvius has spent nine years at The Grange, a private sanatorium, as an inmate. He was sentenced thereafter for attacking Judge Sir Giles Drury. The judge’s wife, Lady Elspeth Drury, believes that Victor is the one responsible for sending her husband death threats. Lady Elspeth wishes to avoid another scandal; she reaches out to a retired stage magician Joseph Spector. She knows he can be discreet as Joseph was involved in another case in which Sir Giles presided over.

Victor’s sister, Miss Caroline Silvis, believes her brother isn’t safe at the sanatorium. She feels that someone is trying to kill him, and she suspects that the judge is plotting Victor’s murder. She feels that Sir Giles has gone out of his way to make sure Victor’s life is a living hell at the sanatorium. She decides to hire Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard to investigate.

As Joseph and George begin working on their respective cases, they end up at Marchbanks, the Drury family home for over four hundred years.  There the pair discovers a body in the middle of a frozen pond but have no way of getting to it there. Then a rifle is fired through a closed window and kills a man without shattering the glass. As they continue to investigate, the long list of suspects is dwindling. Will the two detectives be able to figure out who is behind everything?

I was a bit disappointed in this novel. I love a good murder mystery. The book has an interesting plot and premise and many twists. However, I had a hard time getting into the book. Even though it is a part of a series, it can be read as a standalone. I felt that there were too many characters, and it was hard to keep track of all of them. I also felt that the writing style was so dreadfully bland. I felt like I was reading a documentary. The novel failed to keep my interest, and I don’t think I would be reaching for another one of the author’s books.

Book Review - The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room

The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room by Amy Low is a memoir about Amy navigating life after going through a divorce while battling stage four cancer.  Amy is in a hospital room which will be the last room she will reside in. Her doctors told her that there is no cure for Stage IV metastatic colon cancer and the odds of long survival are very slim.  However, it is now four years after her diagnosis, and that has changed her outlook on life.

I thought the book was an okay read. I usually don’t like reading a lot of memoirs, but I was curious about this one. I felt like I could have gone without reading it. At times, I was trying to understand what the end goal of the book was. I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be a self-help book, a guide, or a memoir. The book does have religious elements and talks about the author coming to terms with her life. If that is something that interests you, you might enjoy the book more than I did.

Book Review - Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen

 

Sacrificial Animals by Kailee Pedersen is about two brothers, Nick and Joshua Morrow, returning home after their father, Carlyle, calls them back there. Nick Morrow never expected to receive an invitation from his father to return home to their family home and farm in rural Nebraska. He thought when he first left, he would be leaving everything in the past including his abusive father.  However, he knows that he and his brother could never refuse or ignore their father.

Joshua was disowned and left the family home after marrying a woman named Emilia. She is a woman of Asian descent. Carlyle is sick and hopes that he can reconcile with his sons before dying.  As expected, Carlyle warms to and spends all his time with his older son, Joshua, and leaves Nick and Emilia alone.  As Nick and Emilia spend more time together, they grow closer and become intimate. It isn’t long before Nick finds himself drawn to her but he suspects that Emilia might have a darker motive than she is letting on.

I had originally picked this book because of the gorgeous cover and the interesting title. The synopsis seemed so interesting and filled with dark twists and turns. It does spoil some of the story though.

I was deeply disappointed in this novel. It was very boring and predictable. There would be pages where nothing would happen. The book was told in a dual timeline but it felt like it didn’t add anything to the story or the progression of it.  I was able to guess every single twist and turn way before it was even hinted at.

I wasn’t a fan of the writing style. It felt dry and clinical, almost like reading a textbook. I also didn’t like that the author kept reusing the same words multiple times within a short span. It made the book feel like the author used a bunch of words to make the book seem more intellectual/literary and longer than it should have been. I was expecting a lot more from this book and it failed to deliver as there was no horror or scary parts.