If you deal with joint pain

 I've found what helps me, I work 3 really hard and grueling 12 hour shifts on every weekend. I have had a right shoulder injury and have a bad left knee. I have been to physical therapy for my knee and still need to go for my shoulder. I have started working out at the gym and have been having pain problems since I was young and here is my advice from dealing with it for over 15 years.

Heat- on rough nights, I make a really hot bath with Epsom salts, these are a lifesaver. Also can do Ice baths as well if you do more really hard work on your muscles.

Diet/drinks- I have cut soda out of my diet completely, it was making me bloated and giving me stomach problems. I have tried getting more fiber and protein in my food and that has definitely been helping.

Stretching/exercises- I do regular once a week gym days where I just do a full-body light workout, usually arms and legs focused. Please tell that man to do dynamic stretches and find out what muscles actually hurt and how to stretch them out so he can feel relief. My physical therapy taught me that your hips have a lot to do with pain in your knees and back. Hip stretches have really helped my knees. And my sciatica flare ups. 

Kt/sport tape/braces-  your joints need some help holding up sometimes so braces really help for if you just have some joints that need support. Also I have been taping with kt tape on my knees and shoulders and that has definitely helped me out when im working 12 hours. 

Pills/vitamins- a lot of people dont take a multi vitamin when they should, pick some up from the store, and a big one that helps with muscles and joints is turmeric, magnesium and potassium. Vitamin B is good for energy and brain support as well. And honestly sometimes I need to force my husband to take ibuprofen and Tylenol because he thinks he can just tough it out. 

Dr visit- sometimes you just have to go to tge dr and have them tell you if something is wrong so that way you know how to fix it. Just like with a car. 

Similar Vibes Books

 I have come across some books that just give off the exact same energy, when reading them I get glimpses of the other. This is definitely the case when it comes to If it makes you happy by Julie Olivia And People Watching by Hannah Bonam Young. These two romance novels are so similar in feel,vibes, and tropes that I cant really separate them from each other in my m8nd when I think about them, even worse is the fact that I tandem read both of them. 

Hannah Bonam-Young is an auto buy author for me and this is my first time dipping my toe into Julie Olivia's work. I must say both authors write such beautiful and heartwrenching stories. Both MMC's were hot and kind and went above and beyond for their woman. Both FMC's were prickly but proud and strong. Cliff and Milo give off the similar vibes but Cliff gives more Daddy vibes thanks to his two children who basically get adopted by Michelle. Both woman dress very similar and both men try to make their woman smile and laugh at their antics. 

The gut wrenching part of People watching was knowing that Prudences mom was going to get worse and forget her more and more. And the sad mom part in IIMYH is the fact that her mother never really got to apologize fully for not being there for her like she was with her sister. Both woman in the end choose their life right where they are, which these are romance novels so of course they always end up with a HEA, which I am not complaining one bit. Both of these books made me cry. Like sob uncontrollably in my bed at 2am because I just had to finish them. The writing, the plot, the characters? All great. You can really feel the love in both of these books and it was a pleasure to read them. 

Warrior Princess Assasin by Brigid Kemmerer

 ALL THE STARS. ALL OF THEM. WARNING, THIS REVIEW IS GOING TO BE SCREAMING AT YOU TO READ THIS FUCKING BOOK!! 

Ok no more caps, just please I know this book literally came out yesterday but I strongly urge everyone who is fed up with romantasy books to read this one. It's the yearning in this book that made me start squealing like a middle school girl just discovering the romance genre for the very first time again. The emotional whallop in this book really packed a punch, I was like oh another marriage of convenience book with Elemental magic ugh been there done that. Then you throw a fire king with a very clearly autistic younger sister who is very dangerous, a princess who has literally been a captive by her own overbearing brother and an assassin from the hunters guild that has the saddest backstory I have read in a long time and you get fucking MAGIC. This book deals with tropes and triggers in just a way that completely makes sense for the world they are currently in. King Ky is the definition of a MAN. A strong soldier who for sure has PTSD from too much war and his honeyed accent that thralls not just the princess but also the assasin. 

Princess Jory is so sheltered and innocent that it made me think I wasn't going to like her but I loved her tenacity and her willingness to be reckless and join in and help every chance she got even without proper training. 

Assasin Asher is a victim of his surroundings, and has lead a hard and sad life, Jory being the only good thing in his life until Ky showed up and showed him that he can be safe with him as well. 

Final Thoughts: I need more Brigid! More please I need that sequel like yesterday. I literally was screaming at the end that I need the second book like yesterday. Actual tears were spilled when I closed the cover. I had to force myself to stop at 230am so I could get some sleep for today and as soon as my eyes opened I got right back to reading. It's been so long Brigid since I have felt like this about a book. every time I read your books I feel like this and I am so lucky to be alive to read your writing. Please everyone read this. 

Please know there are a lot of trigger warnings in here, mainly big ones are situations involving sexual abuse, trauma, ptsd, and themes of faith, trust, survival, and hope.

Spoiler Section Beware!

Ok so these are my next day sit on it thoughts about this books. I have a book hangover now thanks to thos book. I feel changed in some special way, and honestly Defy The Night did that to me as well, and again with A Curse So Dark and Lonely. Brigid knows how to write in this old medievalish fantasy worlds characters that feel so genuine and real. Her characters, her plots, her worldbuilding is so advanced and yet consumable in such a YA and Adult way at the same time, I feel like she captured the essence of what my brain feels like. In my mind I still love and enjoy everything I did as a young adult but my body and my life is changing so much because I am an adult now, mind you I'm only 29 but the way people talk they make 30 feel like its the end of the line. But this book makes me realize that you can live in whatever life you want as long as you strive for it and you have an amazing found family to back you up along the way.  Found family along with a very hot throuple in here really made the story so much better. The relationship dynamic in here starts off slow and just slowly builds up to something spectacular. King Ky is so hot when it comes to the way he handles Asher, knowing that the poor man has been made a slave and that he was sexually abused and that makes any and all touch a threat, and Brigid handled that so well. And how Asher can look right back at Ky and see someone he can really relate too because of his war related PTSD. That and it kind of made me upset to think that Jory just never asked questions about the slavery comment she heard from tge castle staff. Jory really bothered me when I realized how sheltered she was, but in a very refreshing way, like yeah she's sheltered because her brother pretty much caged her in the castle.  You get to see the more grittier side of being royalty without any real power because your a woman and that also hits home. Brigid brings some very real, very close to my heart issues into the light and adds a fantasy element to them that just feels so genuine and like it could literally be anyone who lives in these times. The world feels so solid, and the group travels for most of this book. Some people are going to say its slow and that stuff only gets good at the end, but tge whole journey was to flesh out her characters and you get to see all their trauma upfront and you witness how the dynamics are going to play out in the relationship between all of them. And Ky's soldiers that he brought with him really highlight some very important characteristics about Ky himself and where he is mentally. Like the scene in the inn where all of the soldiers jumped up ready to kill when that door blew open. They also helped relieve some of the tension in a lot of the scenes they had together and it felt really refreshing. Brigid definitely has her side characters well written because if this was a series where they were interconnected standalones then each soldier would get his own spin off book because those guys are literally that compelling. Like Nikko being all burned up from being a POW, and Garrett literally almost breaking his own neck to get Asher to stop choking him. These guys have some really bad PTSD and I love how it was handled. However I will say that I honestly thought that Nikko was dead for half a chapter and I seriously doubted that it was going to turn into Jory having to choose Ky over Asher at that point, but then of course surprise he's bot dead because Asher is actually a young softie who is like I am a trained murderer as long as the person is asleep. So in hindsight I should have realized that Nikko wasn't dead but God damn did I for a solid chapter. And I will admit this, each chapter from each point of view was great, usually there are some characters POVs that I just hate reading from but literally I would get to a new chapter and loved whoever pov we got. Like I said each character has their unique traits and trauma on display throughout the book and I just wanted to know everything. Plus there is the background stressor like Kys sister could be the reason that his lands are suffering but I mean come on what are they going to do if she really has a fit once she finds out Kys friends are his lovers. She is very clearly very high needs autistic and having that be the reason her magic is so dangerous and unpredictable was so clever because of course someone who cant regulate their own bodies won't be able to regulate their powers either. But I have a very strong feeling that everything is going to go to shit in book two and that Jory is somehow going to have to rescue the boys/world that they are in by discovering her powers that have been hidden inside herself. Like its very cliche trope that the girl actually has Powers when she thought she didn't but I love that it would be because she is free and strong and Ky and Asher help give her the step needed to become a magical version of herself. That and I was probably as dumb as her not realizing that Charlotte was the one giving away their position to the hunters along the way. I was like of course it was her, it wasn't any of Kys soldiers. It was so obvious and in my face yet I immediately shouted "It was Charlotte! Of course!" I don't know how she does it but I got a feeling that maybe Brigid Kemmerer is magic herself with how well she wrote this book took all tge themes and the awful stuff and made a really fantastic book that for sure is going to put me into a reading slump but I am perfectly okay with that because I got to read one of the best books I've read EVER in my life. This is for sure going on my favorites list and I need to own a special edition of this. 

The Crimson Moth and Rebel Witch by Kristen Cissarelli

 Spoiler Free Review

I absolutely loved heartless hunter. I have to say without a doubt that rebel witch is better. There are some reveals in this one that I kind of predicted before they happened but I was still blindsided by some of the things that did come up. My favorite parts of this book were how we could see the real character growth with all of the witch hunters who even though they had been brutalized by witches in the past, were so loyal to Gideon that they willingly worked with witches to make sure that they had a future that they all wanted to live in. This is by far the best book I've read this year. The ending had me sobbing, like full on having a panic attack crying because of something that happens that caught me completely off guard. I will literally read whatever Kristen writes next.

Spoiler Review

I'm going to go into depth here about my favorite scenes that I still remember vividly.

The build up to the whole Cressida fight kind of felt a little anticlimactic in the endonly because I was expecting way more encounters with Cressida but she definitely took a haunting background to a new revolution with all our favorite characters from the first book. I loved how in heartless hunter Rune was the main source of strength for everyone around her and in the end having lost all that Gideon in Rebel Witch became the main source of strength for everyone around him and that makes me super happy getting to see this boy who was absolutely brutalized by witches in the past become their greatest ally in Rebel Witch. This is honestly what I will now be looking for in enemies to lovers books now because the characters growing to realize that witches are really just like them with families and lives just like their own they switch to a more we need to work together attitude instead of killing all witches. 

I do have to say I feel like the whole jealousy angle that was going on the Arcadia was kind of silly and foolish given the stakes that were happening with the fact that Rune could have been killed had she been found out by everyone to being a witch was kind of weird. Like these characters still really feel like 18 and 19 year olds which kind of made them sound immature what with all the war happening. 

I really loved the love blooming between Gideon and Rune in Rebel Witch. In Hearless Hunter you just started to get that tension and the crush part of their relationship but in this one you could see the trust and the acceptance that came out of Rebel Witch. The fact that Gideon tried so hard to hold onto what he believed was right until you could see that he literally didn't care about the same things anymore, he just wanted Rune to be safe. 

Watching Gideon become a vital part of the new revolution by being the guy that all the old blood gaurds turned to was a really satisfying thing to watch unfold. I loved that even in the midst of all the chaos and betrayal his friends were fiercely loyal to him even when they thought he was crazy for loving Rune. And him being shocked that his fellow gaurds would still back him up in his choices was so satisfying, made me realize that witches may have stolen his family from him but he ended up making his own family in the end was beautiful.

The visions into the future that Rune was seeing was kind of nuts to introduce kind of last minute in Rebel Witch. Like all of a sudden she can future just as we are introduced to a Witch that can also see into the future is kind of too lucky. However I still loved that once she saw her future children she was all in with Gideon because she wanted that future for him. 

And that ending left my jaw on the floor. Like using her life to give Gideon immortality was kind of nuts, but it felt like two seconds later it's revealed that Seraphine was Wisdom and she ends up using the reincarnation spell on Rune with Cressidas life was a great uno reverse but just kind of felt too convenient, like it happened so fast that I didn't even get to mourn Runes death. Kind of felt like I was robbed of a heartbreaking ending. 

Even with some of the faults in this book this is still one of my favorite duologys and I already want to reread them even though I had already reread heartless hunter so I could remember what happened when Rebel Witch came out. Will recommend this to literally everyone I know from now on.