REVIEW - Lover Reborn by J. R. Ward

(NOTE – I usually endeavor to keep my reviews spoiler free, however, this is the 10th book in a series. The review will not spoil any of the major plotlines of THIS book but if you are not caught up on the series, there may be slight spoilers regarding events in previous books.)

LOVER REBORN

by J.R. Ward

Published by NAL

ISBN# 0451235843

Publication Date: March 2012

Ever since the death of his shellan, Tohrment is a heartbroken shadow of the vampire leader he once was. Brought back to the Brotherhood by a self-serving fallen angel, he fights again with ruthless vengeance- and is unprepared for a new tragedy. Seeing his beloved in dreams—trapped in a cold, desolate netherworld—he turns to the angel to save his former mate, only to despair at the path he himself must take to set her free. As war with the lessers rages, and a new clan of vampires vies for the Blind King’s throne, Tohr struggles between an unforgettable past, and a future that he doesn’t know he can live with… but can’t seem to turn away from.

It has been mentioned here before but I will remind you that I am a full fledged, unabashed Black Dagger Brotherhood ADDICT!  I have been known to buy the same book multiple times, because I give them away to get other people addicted.  I pimp them to everyone I know, readers and non-readers alike.  And I usually buy every book, on release day and start it right then, greedily devouring the book as quickly as I possibly can.  For the first time ever, though, I did not get this book on the release day.  I wasn't even excited about it, to tell the truth.  Though I liked the last book in the series, I didn't love it as much as I have most of them.  In addition to that, I was apprehensive about this story.  Though we didn't get to know her for long, I LOVED Wellsie and wasn't sure I'd be able to accept anyone else in Tohr's life.  So, I decided to wait to buy this one.  Yeah....that lasted all of three days!  Come on...it's the Black Dagger Brotherhood!  I was damn near tapping a vein as I saw all of my online buddies discussing the book!  Excited or not, I needed to get it and get back into that world.  I just hoped it would exceed my relatively low expectations.

I'm so happy to say IT SO TOTALLY DID!!  I LOVED IT!  It felt so right to be immersed in that world again; it was like going home and seeing friends I hadn't seen in about a year.  I love the way J.R. Ward is keeping us up to date with what is going on with the Brothers that have already had their books and introducing us to new characters and storylines while keeping the major focus on the main couple.  I did have a couple of minor issues with the book but overall it was a rousing success to me. 

What I LOVED:

•  I was concerned that I would not accept Tohr with anyone but Wellsie but I like the way this story played out, for the most part (more about the part I didn't care for is farther down).  I love the way Tohr was basically forced into moving forward with his life.  It was painful, angsty, he fought against it and the one thing that made him give in is the one thing those of us who loved Wellsie could understand.  And it involved some hot, dirty, smutastic lovin and WHO DOESN'T LIKE THAT?!?
• I liked the focus on the Band of Bastards.  It was good to get to know more about them and their agenda.  I have picked a favorite among them but he doesn't yet compare to my love for any of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.  I am intrigued by their stories and motives, though, and look forward to seeing more of them in the future.
• I am probably in the minority in this but I liked the progression of Layla's character.  I understand that she is almost universally disliked but I've always been a fan of hers and felt that she's never quite gotten her due.  The developments with her in this book are setting up some very interesting scenarios/storylines in future book and I can't wait to see how they play out!
• I am also in the minority on the issue of Qhuay.  I have never wanted to see Blay and Qhuinn together and am not excited about their story.  I do love Qhuinn, though, and he got to be a SUPREME BAD ASS in this book, in the midst of his mopey, pining for Blay.  Could've done without the moping and pining but loved the hell outta the bad assness; oh yes! Now if he would just get his piercings back, my fantasies would...I mean...ahem...I could be a happy girl again!
• I adored the glimpses of Rhage and V and Butch, etc.  Loved that a lot of the humor came from some of our old favorites.  It's fun to catch up with them and be reassured that all is going well for them.
• Lassiter.  THAT DUDE is HILARIOUS!  Love him!  Can't wait to find out more about him and his future!
• I was happy with the level of humor in this one.  It was full of a lot of emotion and could have been a very dark book, without much levity.  I feel the humor was appropriate and needed to help get us through some of those very tough, soul scarring parts.



What I didn't love QUITE as much:

• There is a major subplot involving the estrangement of one of my favorite couples in the series.  While I was eventually able to see they symmetry between what was going on between them and the major couple and understood how the familial ties all played a part in the drama, I still didn't love it.  For one thing, I feel we'd already dealt with their major issue previously.  Also, part of their issue is something that I can foresee as a problem for Qhuay and I really don't want to go over this ground again.  So, it irritated me but, in the end, I like the way it all worked out.
• There was a twist about 15 pages from the end that I DID NOT see coming and it INFURIATED ME!  I was ready to pitch the book across the room!  While I respect the surprise aspect of it, it took the drama one step too far for me.  I was glad it was resolved rather quickly because a chick was ANGRY!

That was it, though!  Those two things are the only things that prevent me from giving the book a perfect rating but they didn't take away from the story enough for me to say I didn't love it.  I give it a very enthusiastic 4.5 out of 5.  I've read that the next book (spoiler alert) is going to be Qhuay's story.  As I said, that doesn't really excite me but neither did this story...and look how it turned out!  As usual, it's about the BDB, so I'll be there with bells on! 

Apologies for an Accidental Hiatus

Wow. Three months since my last post, huh? OOPS! Ummm…so I was on accidental hiatus and didn’t know it! See, what had happened wuz….ah shoot, no need to lie; I’m a lazy blogger. Always have been and always will be, apparently. I’m quite lackadaisical about my posts and you good folks seem to like me anyway! So thanks for that! My apologies for my absence; I had not realized it had been so long! I do have a couple of excuses OTHER than being lazy, though!



I’ve been focusing on the novel that I’m writing (86,000 words in and coming to the end!) and, as a result, I haven’t been doing much reading. I have done plenty of television watching but I talk about my shows so much on Twitter and in recap e-mails with some of my buddies (you lovelies know who you are!) that I haven’t felt the need to blog about them. I may do some blogging about my fave shows during this long hot summer when my faves are on hiatus though. I need to get more of you into them so I have more folks to commiserate with!


The main reason I haven’t posted a review in months, though, is that it’s been a while since I read something that inspired me to want to blog about it. The beauty of this blog is that I’m under no obligations to review anything; I review what I want. And, what I want to review are the books that I love. Negative reviews bring me down and most of the books I read get reviewed by so many of my lovely fellow bloggers that I don’t really feel the need to add a run of the mill “I liked it” review to the vast blogosphere. So, I save my reviews for the books that knock my socks off. No, scratch that…it needs to go even further; I want to review the books that knock my drawls off! :-D As it happens, I’ve read three such books in recent weeks and I feel the need to review them…or gush about them; whatever you prefer to call it! First up will be Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward. I’m working on the review now, trying to keep the exclamation points, squeals and superlatives to a minimum. I just wanted to drop you a line to tell you to be on the lookout! And to apologize for the hiatus that I hadn’t even realized was going on! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Congratulations to the first winner of 2012

The winner, via random.org, of the Songs of Anarchy CD is.....

Marquetta W!!!!

Congrats!  The winner has been contacted.  I appreciate everyone for stopping by and reading and commenting!

Pimpin My Faves of 2011 plus a Giveaway

I’ve been agonizing over how I wanted to do this and then I realized there was no reason for it; my blog…my rules!  So, in usual fashion, I’m just gonna wing it!

The time has come for end of the year wrap ups.  Last year, I’d had such a bad year that I decided to wait until after the first of January to look forward instead of looking back.  2011 wasn’t the best year I’ve ever had but it was good enough that I feel ok to look back on it, so here goes!  Below is my list of my favorite things from this year; books, tv shows, music and outings.  Afterwards, there’s a Sons of Anarchy-themed (what else??) giveaway; WOOT!

Fave books of the year (**Note – these are books I read this year but they did not necessarily come out this year**)

Persuader – Lee Child –

I read the entire series of Jack Reacher books by Lee Child this year.  I cannot say enough about how much I love these books!  Action,  adventure,  explosions, fights, mysteries, impossible challenges and, in the middle of it all, an Ex-Army MP drifter who is the BADDEST. BAD. ASS. IN. BADASS. TOWN!  I could have put several of the books in the series on this list but I picked Persuader because it’s a book early in the series and, while reading it, I was fully aware that there were several other books written in the series and I was STILL on the edge of my seat with my heart racing as I read, wondering if Jack was going to be able to make it out of the situation alive!  Now THAT is some good writing!

Pale Demon – Kim Harrison – Lots of Trent; quiet as its kept, he’s my favorite!

Dreams of a Dark Warrior – Kresley Cole – so much torturous fun!!  It sounds wrong but it was so right!

Kiss of Snow – Nalini Singh – I’d anticipated this one for a while and it did not disappoint!

Magic Slays – Ilona Andrews – Kate and Curran RULE!

Fave New TV shows of the year

Game of Thrones - HBO  – WINTER IS COMING, BITCHES!! Ned Stark.  The Iron Throne. Khal Drogo.  The Khaleesi.  Jon Snow.  Littlefinger. It doesn’t matter if you know the names;  just….just watch it.  Or read it.  AND watch it.  Trust me.  It’s worth it.  The definition of EPIC.  I say again; TRUST ME. 

Revenge- ABC – Incredible, soapy fun! 

Suits -USA - Gabriel Macht as Harvey Specter is the reason to watch the show.  Period.  And Gina Torres is his boss!  SCORE!

Happy Endings - ABC – one of the best comedy ensembles on tv.  I’ve had plenty of good laughs with this show this year.  It’s worth a watch for Damon Wayans, Jr., alone.  I think he may be funnier than his father.  Hilarity.

Suburgatory - ABC – oddly enough, I don’t really like the main character of the show but I love a lot of the supporting characters.  Even with that, the show makes me laugh and that’s all I really want from my half hour comedies!

Fave  returning TV shows of the year

Sons of Anarchy - FX –

I’m pretty sure not one of you reading this is surprised to see this show at the top of my list!  I am a SOA ADDICT and proud of it!  My pimpage of the show has brought a couple of my co workers, my cousin and several of my Tweeps into the ranks of my fellow SOA addicts and I’m ecstatic about it!  This season was STELLAR!  As usual, I’m already counting down the days until September!

Justified - FX – This is one of the shows that keeps me occupied during the long break between SOA seasons.  Last season was incredible and I’m so looking forward to the new season that starts in a couple of weeks.  Timothy Olyphant as US Marshall Raylan Givens is THE. MAN.  Period.

Archer - FX – Best animated show on tv, hands down!  Very adult, very funny, very quotable and I’m very much looking forward to it coming back in a couple of weeks!

Parks and Recreation -  NBC – My favorite returning comedy.  If you were a fan of the early years of The Office and the cute development of the Jim and Pam relationship,  you should be watching Parks and Rec.  They have a couple that rivals Jim and Pam!  Plus, Parks and Rec brought us “Treat Yo’ Self” Day:

It’s the best day of the yeeeeaaarrr!

Fave Music of the Year

My fave new music of the year, by a looooong margin, was Adele’s 21.  By such a long margin, in fact, that I don’t have anything else to put here.  Oh…except my fave rap lyric of the year:

“If we ever do this whoopty whoop, I want allll that bleepty bleep” – Andre 3000

Yep.  That.

 My fave outing of the year

My trip to Authors After Dark in Philly  - met so many of my tweeps, had some successful writerly type meetings AND was introduced to a bunch of new to me authors; it was the trip of the year for me! I wrote about it here, in case you missed it.

Well, there you have it; all the high points of 2011 for me!  My family traditionally gives each other gifts on New Year’s Eve so I’m going to extend that to my blog family too!  I have a copy of the Songs of Anarchy CD, songs from Sons of Anarchy seasons 1 – 4, courtesy of my bestie Chena, to give away. 

If you want it, tell me something that you loved in 2011, whether its on my list or not.  That’s it!  I’ll pick a winner at random on January 5^, 2012.  Contest is open to all. 

Thanks for hanging in there with me in 2011!  Looking forward to more fun in 2012!  Everyone have a happy, safe and prosperous New Year!!

I'm still here!

Hello, lovely blog readers! This is just a quick note to say hi there, hello…I haven’t forgotten about you and I hope you haven’t forgotten about me! This year, and in particular, the past six weeks have been very stressful in my personal life which has kept me from reading, writing, blogging and tweeting as much as I would like to. It’s kept me from blogging AT ALL but, I didn’t want you to think I haven’t been THINKING about blogging because I definitely have! Here, for your reading pleasure, are ideas that might have become blogs in the last few months, if circumstances had been different:


1) Your "UUUNNNPH" song! - What is that song that runs in your head when you see someone that you find ridiculously attractive? Do you have one? Do you go old skool or new skool with your song choice(s)? (for the record, the song that I heard on my I-Pod that prompted this topic was Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover by Sophie B. Hawkins; that’s my JAM!)

2) The novels of Lee Childs – Jack Reacher, the main character of the series is (excuse my French) THE EM EFFIN MAN!!!! He deserves a blog post all his own and still may get one in the near future.

3) My blog anniversary - Sigh. Yeah. Turns out, I kinda missed it. Sigh. That fact should surprise no one. BUT, I had a big post and giveaway planned for the month after the anniversary but then we had a serious ailment befall a family member and all plans for EVERYTHING (work, play, blog, reading, writing…everything!) got shifted to the back burner. Soooo..happy belated to blogiversary to us all!  :-)

4) Sons of Anarchy (of course!!!) - THIS. SEASON. Oh my goodness! I had MEANT to steer those of you that are still non watchers towards Netflix to get caught up before this season started but it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. Seriously, though, if you’re not watching the show….WHAT. IS. WRONG. WITH. YOU?!?!?!

5) The End of the Harry Potter Saga - It was an idea but, quite frankly, I think I still might be just a little too emotional about this situation to write about it yet.  Yes, it's THAT serious!

I could go on listing ideas, but just know that I really do have posts PLANNED and I truly have MEANT to be writing them...but it just hasn't worked out.  And now, it's November again and I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) once again so I'm writing like crazy this month, just not blogging that much.  But, hey, I did manage to do this one! 

I have a big end of the year post planned, along with several giveaways to thank you for hanging in there with me, inconsistent blogger that I am.  I HOPE to write more posts before then, but if not, we have that to look forward to, at least!!  Thanks, as always, for stopping by!  I appreciate you!

KLB Virtual Journey - REVIEW - Decadent Dreams by Ty Langston

Beth Mason seemingly has it all. A successful bakery/cafe calledDecadent Dreams, good friends, and a nice home in Stamford, New York. After her boyfriend dumps her for not spending enough time with him, Beth decides she's been through enough and she wants more in a relationship.Throwing herself back into the dating scene, Beth decides to go onto an online dating website called 'A Foreign Affair.'

Enjoying the different types of men from all over the world that ‘A Foreign Affair’ catered to, Beth became struck by a handsome man from Belarus named Yuri who was the former manager of the famed Rhapsody night club. After realizing that they had a lot in common, the two struck up a close, intense relationship. Yuri, who’s been depressed since his nightclub burned to the ground and watching his best friend’s parents both die from a terminal illness, decided to take Beth up on an invite and join her for a fun-filled weekend in New York City. With both of them full of emotions, will the weekend be just what they needed or more than they bargained for?

This story was a new experience for me.  I don’t read a lot of erotica or novellas.  Don’t get me wrong; I like the down and dirty…I just think I like it in a longer form.  (wait…that sounds dirtier than I wanted it to!)  I was intrigued by the synopsis of this story though, so I decided to read it.

I really liked the concept of the Foreign Affairs website.  The full service aspect of the site and the way it caters to its members lends itself to a great premise for a wonderful relationship stemming out of an online encounter.  I don’t think the novella format gave enough time for the relationship to truly develop, organically, so that the reader is fully invested in the love story of Yuri and Beth.  Their story was interesting; I just think it needed a bit more fleshing out.

And speaking of flesh J, this story certainly lives up to it’s erotic billing!  Yuri and Beth share some scorching hot scenes, once they are together and able to do the things they’ve only been dreaming about during the months they’ve been in contact online.  I may have mentioned it before but I’m a big fan of shower scenes and bathroom scenes and this story delivers on both fronts!  I particularly liked the nightclub bathroom scene!

There were several secondary characters introduced in the story, complete with back stories.  Their inclusion in the story, while taking a little bit of time that could have been used to further develop Yuri and Beth, did intrigue me, as well.  Yuri’s best friend Nik, in particular, is an interesting character who seems as if he's being set up for his own story.  I’m looking forward to his story to see how his situation works out. If you are a fan of the novella length book and are looking for some sizzling sex, give Decadent Dreams a try!

Thanks to the ladies of KLB for allowing me to take part in this blog tour.  To join the ladies of KLB and participate in a conversation about this book, please click here.  Thank you, as always, for dropping by! 

One More AAD Philly Post

A week ago today, I returned home from my first ever con, the Authors After Dark Conference in Philadelphia, PA, also known as AADPhilly.  It’s been a week and I’m STILL on a high from the fun I had! I wanted to go through all of my swag and have a giveaway ready before I did this post but that hasn’t worked out, so we’ll consider this my part one post.  Once I have everything together for my giveaway, I’ll do a part two. Deal?  Cool!

Months ago when registration first opened for AAD, I had no knowledge of the conference and, therefore, no interest in going.  I saw that several of my tweeps were discussing it on Twitter but I wasn’t paying much attention.  There was a frenzy amongst my tweeps when registration opened and I got caught up in it when my friend Adrienne of DrensBSpot urged me to register, informing me that it would be a great opportunity to meet so many of my buddies on Twitter .  I decided to register, for that very reason.  From that point, my main motivation for going to AAD was the opportunity to meet and hang out with my tweeple.  I knew that it was a conference for authors and readers to hang out together and I knew there was going to be a big signing on Saturday and several authors I am familiar with were going to be there so I was also interested in that.  Recently, I found out that there would be some industry folks at the conference, willing to meet with aspiring authors, such as myself, so I also started to look forward to that.  But, first and foremost, I was most excited about the time I would get to spend with some of the folks I speak with on a daily basis on Twitter. As a result, my expectations going in may have been a little different than many other attendees.  I write all of that to say…I had a BALL!  The trip met and far exceeded my expectations and I’m so very glad Dren talked me into it!

I’d originally made plans to take the train up and to stay at a different hotel than the con hotel but circumstance worked out so that I ended up riding with Adrienne and rooming with her in the con hotel.  I’m so glad of both of those things; Adrienne was the BEST. DRIVER. EVER (thanks 5 Hour Energy!) and being in the hotel was extremely beneficial to my all around experience. 

Adrienne and I arrived early on Thursday after having left NC at 12:45am.  Adrienne did all the driving and I did all the sleeping; thanks buddy!  When we arrived, our room wasn’t ready yet so we started meeting people before we’d had a chance to freshen up and get situated.  I considered hiding until I’d had a chance to pull myself together but then I caught sight of my buddy Bells from Hanging with Bells and all thoughts of not meeting my girls right then flew right out the window!  Right before the Welcome event, I met Bells and Marq from Love To Read For Fun, Jen from That’s What I’m Talking About, Pam from Wicked Lil Pixie, Mandy from Smexybooks, Danielle from Lush Book Reviews and Kat from Tigris Eden’s Garden of Books. After that, the meeting and greeting was fast and furious!  I met Felicia aka @FERISHIA and her friend Dina.  I saw Jennifer Estep, whose books I already love and I also met Monica Burns, a new to me author who was a complete riot and whose books I can’t wait to read now!  And all this was before we ever checked in!  We did finally get our room and I was able to hit the afternoon panels and appointments a little more put together.  Big shouts to everyone that was on board with that whole "we're all going to pretend that we DIDN'T see Penny in her road ensemble earlier" plan; love you ladies!  J

From that point forward, the con was a big, happy, fun blur of panels, meals, balls (heh heh; yep…I’m 12!), pictures (more about the LACK of those below), books, swag and laughter! I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  I attended as a reader but got so much out of the con as a writer, as well.  I met some of my favorite authors as well as a bunch of new to me authors and came home with bags full of books to add to my TBR shelf.   I had so many fun moments and met so many great folks that I’m afraid to list them all out, for fear I’d miss someone.  What I will do, though, is list just a few of the many highlights for me:

-Meeting and spending time with authors Larissa Ione, Lara Adrian, Nicole Peeler, Jennifer Estep, Carolyn Crane, Monica Burns, Caridad Pineiro, JA Saare, PJ Schnyder, Jessa Slade, Meljean Brook, Dakota Cassidy, Melissa Ecker, Ava Riley, Eliza Gayle, Kris Cook and Karin Harlow/Tabke.  They were all so approachable and down to earth! And so tolerant of so many of us going into full fangirl mode in their presence!  It was awesome!  Some were new to me, some were my tweeps and a couple were already amongst my fave authors but I came away with a new level of love for each of them.

-Meeting so many of my Twitter friends and gaining new tweeps!  I loved all of the Tweep meet ups; usually distinguishable by all the hugging and squeeing!

-The Pin the Penis on the Founding Father game.  Yup….take a minute to soak that in. Imagine Thomas Jefferson littered with paper peens...with smiley faces!  It happened and it was FABULOUS!

-The Guess the Author by the Sex Scene panel.  All of the panelists were fantastic but Nicole Peeler deserves special attention for her fantastic, dramatic sex scene readings!  Loved the twist of using names of attendees and their fave male celebrities instead of the character names in the readings.  And the scenes picked were great; I’m not even a little bit ashamed to say that I knew the J.R. Ward scene two sentences in!  And I was by no means alone; folks all over the room started nodding their heads.  Good times!

-The Mythos Ball.  I don’t do costumes and had considered not attending either of the balls but I’m so glad I did.  It was great to see those that did dress up; everyone looked lovely!  Plus, the music was great and the company was top notch.  It was great seeing all the authors, publishers, editors and readers all getting their collective groove on.

-The impromptu birthday party for Larissa Ione in Bells, Marq and Cat’s room.  We got to spend time with Larissa Ione and Lara Adrian and the Sisterhood of the Werefly was born.  Plus….CAKE!  It was, as Cat would say, THE BIZNAZ! 

-The times I was in the middle of a conversation with a new friend…only to realize that I was actually talking to someone I already knew from a blog or Twitter!!  That’s what happened with @Toriaimeegirl, @Katiebabs, @j_hussein, @iqb2001 and @JeanniePBlair. 

-The Aspiring Authors Mixer.  Great information shared by a bunch of industry professionals.  So glad I attended and glad to have met so many people willing to help newbies like myself.

-Sitting with Jen from Not Now...I’m Reading at the SteamPunk Ball during the Sideshow performance.  She saved my night with a picture of Randy Orton.  Now that’s a good friend right there! 

-This picture.  Thanks to Jen for getting us all together for this pic; I’m so glad we have this memento of our time together!

-The ride there and back with Adrienne.  Lots of laughs and lots of creativity.  Thanks again for everything, Dren!

Unfortunately, what I don’t have to share with you is my own personal pictures.  Don’t ask me why; I have no idea.  I had my camera phone with me everywhere I was but I was too busy smiling and posing for pics to worry about taking them, it would seem.  I did manage to take all of ONE picture while I was in Philly; this is me and Decadent Publishing Executive Editor Heather Bennett sharing a bag of ball cookies.  Make of that what you will.  J

Thankfully, all of my wonderful tweeps took lots of pictures and have posted them, with their own memories and recollections of the conference.  Please click on the links below to for pictures and many more memories from some of my con buddies.

Jen - Authors After Dark 2011 Wrap Up
Tigris Eden - The Good, the Bad and the Sad Ugly of AAD Philly
Bells - My AAD Philly 2011 Experience
Danielle (@iqb2001) - Authors After Dark Recap
Ava Riley - What #AAD Philly Taught Me...
Marq - My AAD Adventure
Spaz P - Spaz Goes to A...NOT ANOTHER AAD POST! Philly 
Jen - Authors After Dark 2011 Part 1 and Part 2
Dren - AAD Philly - A Writer's Perspective - Full of Win!
Dren - AAD Philly - A Blogger's Perspective

Though I had a spectacular time and got everything I wanted out of the con, I know there were those that did not.  There were some unfortunate and, in at least one case, ugly incidents that I became aware of that did mar the experience for several people. I was not personally affected but some of my friends were and I didn't care for it at all.   As a result, I will most likely not attend next year.  I am very glad, however, that I did attend this year.  My first con was everything I wanted it to be and more.  Thanks to everyone I met and spent time with; you were the ones that made the trip so much fun. 

An AAD swag giveaway will be coming soon as well as some reviews for several of the books I received so look for those posts in the near future.  Thanks to all who made my experience so great and thanks, as always, for stopping by!