Author: Cyliena Velnarin

A gamer, a mother, and a mother of gamers. My opinions are my own.

Review: The Scoundrel’s Honor

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The Scoundrel's HonorThe Scoundrel’s Honor by Christi Caldwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Unlike The Rogue’s Wager (Sinful Brides #1), Caldwell’s writing shines in The Scoundrel’s Honor. It’s a riveting story with likeable characters that evolve throughout the tale.

Ryker Black, brother to Helena (Sinful Brides #1), is a feared gaming hell owner who sees emotion as weakness and has no interest in marriage. Penelope Tidemore—sister to Patrina, Poppy, Prudence, and Jonathan (Scandalous Seasons books 4 & 5; Lords of Honor #2)—is a young lady trying to rise above her family’s scandalous name, but won’t be cowed by cruelty. An unfortunately meeting leads to these two marrying, opening Penelope to a world far grittier than anything she could have imagined and leading Ryker to deal with the consequences of letting in another’s affections.

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Review: Super 40

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super-40_lucy-woodhull_cover Super 40 by Lucy Woodhall

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book I’ve read by Lucy Woodhull—the first was her 2016 release, 667 Ways to F*ck Up My Life.

Super 40 is a gem that celebrates womanhood in all forms while hooking us with Woodhull’s amazing sense of humor.

The book introduces us to Shannon, a 40-year-old divorcee living with her parents, working in a yarn shop… and, oh yes, she also obtains a superpower in the most embarrassing way possible. Shannon learns that life isn’t over at 40, and no matter what cards you’re dealt, you need to kick some butt and have fun while doing it.

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Photography: As Close As You Can Get

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The “As Close As You Can Get” photo assignment wanted us to look at common objects on the macro level. This assignment ended up being tricky for me — not because of its nature, but because one hand was nearly unusable due to a car accident earlier this week. Thankfully a tripod and remote shutter button solved most of that problem.

Not all of these ended up being quite as crisp or macro as I had hoped, but I’m still pleased with the results. If you’re stumped, I’ve listed what each image is at the end of this post.


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Photography: When It’s Blue Out

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My photography assignment, “When It’s Blue Out”, required us to look for that perfect time of day when the sky had a blue hue, and indoor lights gave off a natural glow that was neither too bright nor too dark: dusk and dawn. I’m not a dawn type of person unless under duress, so dusk it was.

In the pictures below, that time was just after sunset, around 6pm (gotta love Michigan winters). These photos were my favorite from this assignment, all taken at Northwestern Michigan College.

(Update: Two of these images are featured in the Feb 10 issue of White Pine Press — on the cover and page 3.)


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Photography: Color Mismatch

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Northwestern Michigan College revived the Color Photography (Photo II) class this semester, so I dove in the moment registration opened up. We’ve only turned in two assignments so far: When It’s Blue Out/Color Mismatch (dual assignment) and As Close As You Can Get. The current assignment is a two week look at depicting dreams, and by late next week we need to have one completed “dreamy” photo turned in.

But first, here are my favorites from the “Color Mismatch” portion of assignment #1. Our instructor wanted us to just “have fun with it” and go crazy with color balance and various colorization options in Photoshop. Mine ended up primarily psychedelic.


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