I am thrilled to share my first review of the summer with Cyndi Tefft’s HELL TRANSPORTER, Book 2 in the Between Series. Each week throughout the summer, I will share a book review along with a Pinterest experiment. I love to cook and do craft projects, but I’ve been short on time throughout the school year. Now that the kids are out of school, I’m going to take advantage of my time with them to work on projects and recipes I’ve wanted to try throughout the year. Each week I will share a project or recipe with you and give you my review of how it turned out and, if appropriate, how kid friendly it is 🙂
Blurb:
Aiden MacRae has been given a new life after being stuck transporting souls to heaven for the last three hundred years. He doesn’t know the culture, the times or the slang, but there is one thing he does know: he didn’t come forward alone.
The master of hell has other plans for the Scottish Highlander and has sent a transporter of his own to get the deed done. Will Lindsey be able to save him or get caught in the crossfire?
Review:
Last year I presented my review of BETWEEN, Book 1 in the NA Between Series. The premise is based on Lindsey, a college student who dies in a car crash and falls in love with the transporter who is supposed to take her to heaven. I loved the book and was excited to continue reading the story with Book 2, HELL TRANSPORTER.
In Book 2, Lindsey finds herself head over heels in love and wondering if her new life is too good to be true. Her sense of peace soon comes crashing down when she discovers that someone else from “the other side” is after her. I love these books because it is a quick, easy read, but at the same time, Cyndi manages to create a sense of realism through rich, descriptive language. She creates enough visualization to offer the sights, smells, and feelings that the characters experience, but not too much to bog the reader down. HELL TRANSPORTER has a nice balance of character development, romance, and suspense.
Without giving anything away, I will say that HELL TRANSPORTER lives up to my expectations, and is perhaps even more exciting than the first book. I was satisfied with the ending because it didn’t leave off with a complete cliffhanger, but left me wanting enough to read the next book, EVEN IN DARKNESS.
I would recommend the series for older teenagers, as there are mild love scenes, or any adult who enjoys an excellent paranormal NA story 🙂 5 STARS *****
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12934676-hell-transporter?from_search=true
Pinterest Project
Peanut Butter Energy Balls
Recipe:
I found several variations of this recipe online. There are slight variations but this one was the most similar to other recipes I found.
- 1 cup dry old-fashioned oatmeal
- 2/3 cup toasted coconut flakes (I used raisins instead)
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used all natural, no sugar)
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 Tbsp. chia seeds (optional)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly mixed. Cover and let chill in the refrigerator for half an hour.
Once chilled, roll into balls of whatever size you would like. (Mine were about 1″ in diameter.) Store in an airtight container and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.
Makes about 20-25 balls.
I’ve been wanting to find healthier snack alternatives for the kids and myself (and the husband, ha ha) and saw the recipe for these Peanut Butter Protein Energy Balls awhile ago, and I’ve been wanting to try them. They are excellent on so many levels and I highly recommend them.
First off, they are very easy to make and it’s a fun, easy project that the kids can help out with. Full of high nutritional foods (except for the chocolate chips), the peanut butter balls give me enough energy to keep me going for hours. I can eat two in the morning and feel satisfied until lunch in comparison to eating a bowl of cereal where I am usually hungry an hour or two later. You’ll see in the recipe that flaxseeds and chia seeds are included. These are of course optional, as most of the ingredients are. You can mix and choose what you add. I was hesitant to add the seeds because I didn’t know much about them. I remembered hearing Dr. Oz talk about them on his show at one point, so I knew they had to have some sort of beneficial health value, but I couldn’t remember what it was, so I googled them. Here’s what I found:
Flaxseeds: (Taken from WebMD.com)
Although flaxseed contains all sorts of healthy components, it owes its primary healthy reputation to three of them:
- Omega-3 essential fatty acids, “good” fats that have been shown to have heart-healthy effects. Each tablespoon of ground flaxseed contains about 1.8 grams of plant omega-3s.
- Lignans, which have both plant estrogen and antioxidant qualities. Flaxseed contains 75 to 800 times more lignans than other plant foods.
- Fiber. Flaxseed contains both the soluble and insoluble types.
Chia Seeds: (Taken from WebMD.com)
Chia is an edible seed that comes from the desert plant Salvia hispanica, grown in Mexico dating back to Mayan and Aztec cultures. “Chia” means strength, and folklore has it that these cultures used the tiny black and white seeds as an energy booster. That makes sense, as chia seeds are a concentrated food containing healthy omega-3 fatty acids, carbohydrates, protein, fiber, antioxidants, and calcium.
Chia seeds are an unprocessed, whole-grain food that can be absorbed by the body as seeds (unlike flaxseeds). One ounce (about 2 tablespoons) contains 139 calories, 4 grams of protein, 9 grams fat, 12 grams carbohydrates and 11 grams of fiber, plus vitamins and minerals.
The health benefits to include the seeds definitely sounded worth it and the recipe doesn’t call for a lot. I spent about $3 at a local health food store for enough seeds to make the recipe twice. The downside to the seeds is that they do get stuck in the teeth, especially the chia seeds if you have braces or any sort of permanent retainer. The little black seeds, unlike poppyseeds, swell when they get wet and become gooey. So you have to weigh that option when you consider adding them.
The Peanut Butter Energy Balls get a definite 5 stars and are highly recommended for the whole family.
Look for future books and projects that I will be reviewing this summer on my Pinterest page. I will continue to add books and projects as the summer progresses so check back 🙂
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Jacinda Buchmann 