I received this book from Forever Romance because of my membership at Book Blogs. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love reading books based on history, it doesn’t matter if it’s a romance book, action novel or even a non-fiction book. I just love history and finding out if what the book says happened really did. Its fun to learn in a way that entertaining and I’ve found that if I read something, then do more research on it I find so much more out. Countess of Scandal was a book that got me thinking. It’s set during the Revolution in Ireland in 1798. It contains characters that actually existed and of course some that did not. The story follows Eliza Blacknall and William Denton who as children were friends who became more only to be turn apart by the military. William went to war and Eliza married the man her parents choose for her.

The story really starts a few years later when Eliza, now a widow, and William meet again and they start to remember how they felt about each other. The problem is Eliza is very involved in the revolution and William is still an English redcoat. The story tells a journey of love and survival during a time that is so uncertain. It’s a fun and thought provoking book even though it really is just meant to entertain.

If you are interested in reading this book check out my giveaway!

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If you were alive during a revolution would you join the rebels or stick with the side in power?

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Giveaway ends February 14th at midnight winners will be posted on Feb. 15th

I am sorry this has taken me so long to get up, it was suppose to be up Monday, but I have had a crazy few weeks!

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This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Pexagon Technology. All opinions are 100% mine.

Everyone loves the same cool toys but sometimes it’s just way to hard to make it your own and stand out from the crowed, that is where personalized Apple & BlackBerry cases could help you. The selection is really great at Pexagon, and since you can personalize it you can really get something that will stand out and scream you.

In my case, everyone in my family has the same cell phone, well three of us do anyway, and it’s hard to tell them apart until you turn them on. I have been looking at cases just because of this and they can be pricey, but I think they will be worth it. I don’t have a blackberry, but I do now a mom and daughter that do and they get theirs mixed up all the time! They have been looking for covers for a while, but just have not found any they really like. I’m finding it hard myself.

After checking out Pexagon though I have found a few things that will work really well, at least I think for my friends and I even found a portable hard drive enclosure for me! In other words they have a lot of cool stuff. I’m even am looking at getting a personalized flash drive for a friend who really needs one, she knows who she is.

I love fantasy and adding some romance to it just makes a book even better. Because of my membership at Book Blogs I was given the chance to review A Highlanders Destiny by Melissa Mayhue, I have not read her books before but I am a fan now. This book is the 5th in a series

A Highlanders Destiny is a story of a women named Destiny trying to find her sister who has been kidnapped. The Authorities believe that she is really just a runaway and are not very helpful. This story is set in modern times, but includes the knight in black armor and the damsel in distress that we romance readers seem to love.  Jesse is the knight in black armor, he has decided that he is going to help Destiny find her sister, little does he realize this is more then just a normal kidnapping.

Destiny does not know that she is part Fae, or Fairy to make it more clear. She is attacked early in the book by another Fae this is when Jessie, who is a decedent of Fea, starts to figure out what is going on. This leads them on  a cross country chase to find her sister.

I don’t like sharing the ending of a book, so that is really as far as I’m going to go into the story. It’s really a great book and I will be picking up the first four to read along with the 6th soon since it just released this month.

Home buying right now can be a rough experience. You want to find that perfect home, but maybe the bank doesn’t want to lend you the money for it or the home is not in the location you really want. I have been experiencing this frustration myself. Though my recent home search has not been for me, but for a friend. When looking up Malibu Real Estate for a friend I found some amazing homes. Unfortunately many have been out of his price range and he just doesn’t understand that he needs to lower his expectations.

I suggested he check out Los Angeles Rental Property since he is just moving into the area and being able to figure out what he would really like is better in my opinion. Doing this I believe would save him money in the long run. As right now he’s got a nice high interest rate and the home’s he’s looking at are really still expensive. This experience has made me think more about how you can save money when shopping for a new home.

This is what I came up with:

1. Shop around for the best loan. Don’t just use your bank or a mortgage firm because you’ve been there for a while. Research online and ask people you know who have recently bought a home. If it was more then a year ago, it might be helpful to talk to them, but keep in mind things have changed a lot.

2. Check your credit and fix what you can at least 6 months before applying for a mortgage. You want your score as close to 800 as possible.

3. Don’t pull new credit, no new credit cards, car loans or other loans at least 6 months before trying to get a mortgage, the bank may think you are living beyond your means.

4. Be flexible, if your young look for a starter home, not your dream home. You can always move and trust me as a person who has moved about 20 times in her life so far I know it doesn’t harm your kids at all. In fact I accept change a lot better then people who don’t move.

5. If you can buy a home now, and take advantage of the tax credits available.

Do you have any house hunting tips?

I was thinking last night about the economy and how it has effected everyone. I am curious, this year do you plan on saveing more or spending more. I personally will be spending more as long as I have the money to do so. Now I’m not just talking shopping for clothing, but just in bills and other debts. I also do plan on buying a new computer, a good printer fax thing and lots and lots of clothing as I’m also trying to lose weight, you can follow that progress on my loss my gain.

So what do you think you will do this year when it comes to spending or saveing? What do you hope to be able to do?

I love how you can always find a great deal on TV. There are just so many out there. If your looking for a good network to use I would check out Dish Network. We have them and though we have had some issues, it’s been mostly with our local phone company and not Dish itself. We have a very small package as we are trying to save money, but we still get a good amount of channels. Before we had everything but movie channals and I loved it. The service is really good as when we did have problems that Dish could fix they fixed them quickly.

Now of course there are many Dish Network deals out there, many may depend on your area and what is offered there. I know we don’t get the same deals as more populated areas because much of what the deals contain are just not offered yet. This is yet another downside of living in the middle of nowhere. I believe there is even a clause on their website that states something like Dish Network offers may vary or something. They still are worth checking out if your looking for an alternative to cable or if you want more then just basic TV. The programming is good and so far I’m happy with the service I have gotten. They are much easier to work with then the cable company we had in the past. I still can’t seem to get though to anyone at my old cable company. Apparently they are just too busy ripping people off.

There are times where I love something so much that I just think there is no way I should share this. Then everyone else will know about it and use it. Then I do a mental kick to my head and decide that this is just too good to not pass along. Denise’s Daily Dozen is one of these things. I love this book. Not only does it have wonderful exercises to get you moving and going, but it explains eating and mental well being as well.

I love the tips she gives, like buying healthy food in bulk. I honestly went out after reading that and bought a bunch of nuts in bulk. I love nuts and when you want something crunchy they can be a great place to go. I carry them with me a lot now and have found I’m full and don’t snack as much on sweets.

The exercises in this book are very easy to do at home so your not buying a gym membership that you will never use, you can just take a few minutes out of your day, pick an exercise or two and do them. Now, this is what I did and I only lost about 3 pounds, but I enjoyed the exercises, that in my opinion is what matters, if you enjoy it and it gets you moving you will lose weight. There is also a great website to check out: deniseaustin.com

I also love how Denise focuses on mental well being as well as physical. She has many tips to help you feel better about yourself, your life and where you are going. Writing things down and learning to say positive things instead of negative is really a great way to help you lose weight, use these tips along with the relaxation tips in the book and you may see a change in your energy level. I know I did, but of course like everything, what works for me may not work for you.

Are you interested in checking out this book? Enter my giveaway, it’s easy!

Required entry:

If your trying to lose weight share why, if you want to lose weight share why you haven’t started yet.

Bonus Entries:

Follow savey spender on Twitter

Link to this giveaway on Facebook, a forum or any site you would like, leave the url in a comment

Write a blog post about this giveaway. Leave a link to the post in your comment (counts as 5 entries)

Tweet this and leave a link to your status update: (You may tweet this once per day. Please leave a comment for each tweet.) Win one of 5 copies of Denise’s Daily Dozen http://bit.ly/4v24Ks @saveyspender

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Giveaway ends January 31st at midnight winners will be posted on Feb. 1st

Sometimes saving money can be hard, other times it’s very easy and you could even get a great new home out of the deal. Yep, there is a way to save money on buying a new home. It’s a Lease Purchase and they are very simple and helpful if you are looking to buy a new home. Lets say your looking for a home in San Diego, go to Google or another search and type in Lease Purchase San Diego and you will probably find a huge amount of homes that you can lease.

Next you find an investor, agree on the terms of your lease and move into your home. Once you feel you are ready to then buy the home all you have to do it buy it. This is a great set up if you need the space of the home, but you can’t afford or qualify for a mortgage payment. I personally love the idea as I think it’s a better way to go then what we had before where you would get sacked with high interest rates. What do you think?