I love to try new products and I recently tried these drinks from ALO. These drinks are made with aloe vera. I in the past have used aloe vera to help a sore or burn heal so I know it is good for you. I was surprised that a drink could be make out of aloe vera. I was really surprised how good and how refreshing the drinks were.

ALO has 9 unique flavors of our original ALO Drink line and 3 in our new 50% less sugar, 50% fewer calories ALO Light line and our Coco Exposed line of 5 refreshing blends are made with coconut water, aloe vera, and fruit juices, all of which are all gluten free and GMO-free. They’re made from pulp and juice directly from the aloe vera plant, NOT reconstituted from powder. ALO also dosen’t add any preservatives, artificial colors or flavors. Their drinks are made free of pesticides, herbicides, chemicals, fertilizers and do not contain any soy.

I tried 4 different ones - the first was Comfort a great watermelon peach flavor, I also had Exposed which is the original with honey, The Enrich aloe, pomegranate, and cranberry and the last one was Allure which had aloe, mangosteen and mango. They all tasted pretty good and I liked that they were pretty low calorie at only 60 calories per 8 fl oz. serving. I felt refreshed and hydrated after drinking ALO. I would purchase any of these flavors again.

If you would like to try ALO you can find it at many local stores like Safeway, Rite Aid and Whole foods. You can also purchase it ONLINE. You can stay connected with ALO on Facebook.

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Book Details
Genre: Cozy Mystery
4th in the Pecan Bayou Series
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 13, 2013)
Paperback: 342 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1490942919
E-Book File Size: 338 KB
ASIN: B00DSU1S8W

Synopsis
Betsy Livingston is planning a wedding so what could go wrong? After publishing a recipe for homemade calamine lotion in the newspaper, the ladies in the community church make a large batch. Everyone loves the stuff until someone in Pecan Bayou is found dead after using it. The town points to Betsy and she starts rethinking her whole career as a helpful hints columnist. Now she must clear her own name in between dress-fitting, cake-tasting, and all those things that turn a bride into a bridezilla. Is Betsy at fault or could there be something else that leads her down the aisle to murder?

About Teresa Trent

eresa Trent lives in Texas and loves writing about small town life. She first got the idea to create Pecan Bayou after visiting the Texas Hill Country to view the millions of springtime flowers alongside the roads and highways. The town of Pecan Bayou does not exist in Texas, but there is a body of water in the state with the name. Pecan Bayou does exist in Teresa’s imagination and heart. Buzzkill is the fourth book in the Pecan Bayou series featuring all of the crazy characters who live in this cozy little town in Texas.

Connect With Teresa

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/teresatrentmysterywriter

Twitter- @ttrent_cozymys

Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5219581.Teresa_Trent

Buzzkill Excerpt

“Okay now, let’s see.” Mr. Andre lowered his head, revealing the roots of his mousse-spiked, bleached hair. He wore a dark maroon suit with a matching jewel-toned silk shirt unbuttoned midway, showing sparse hair on his skinny chest. “Do you have a photographer?”

“Yes,” I ventured.

“No,” Aunt Maggie cut in. “She has some guy who shoots kiddie team pictures.”

“Oh my.” Andre circled something on his clipboard. “No photographer.”

“And you’ve gone for a wedding cake tasting?”

“A tasting? I think I already know what vanilla and chocolate tastes like by now.”

Andre shook his head as if I were a child. “No, my dear. You will be pleased to find out there are other flavors like white amaretto, champagne – girl, you can even get peanut butter if that’s what floats your boat. So I take it you haven’t had a cake-tasting session?”

“You would be correct,” I replied.

“I see.” He circled another line. “And your flowers?”

“She’s using Lenny Stokes, and she’s already put a deposit down,” Aunt Maggie said.

Andre grimaced.

“I see. I’ll need his number and address so I can get in contact with him to put him on my approved vendors list.” He circled another line. “And what is the venue?”

“We are going to have the ceremony at the community church.”

Andre’s eyebrows raised as he nodded and smiled. I had finally done something right.

“Do you have any kind of documentation on this?” he asked.

“Not officially, no,” I said. “I have talked to the pastor about it, though and he says it’s open. We live in a small town, Andre. Documentation isn’t always required.”

“Mr. Andre,” he corrected.

“We just don’t have the same kinds of waiting lists like there are in the big city.”

He clutched his hand to his chest. “Well, that’s a relief.”

“And your invitations?”

“We weren’t going to send those out until mid-January. We were afraid people would lose them. I have them ordered.” Mr. Andre’s eyes slanted toward me. “Well, they’re not exactly ordered, but I do have them picked out.”

A pause hung in the air as Mr. Andre summoned up the strength to go on. “Are you sure we’re planning a wedding and not some kind of country barbecue where they cook a pig over a spit?” He clasped his hands together in front of him to emphasize his point. “You are in crisis mode, Madame Happy Hinter.”

I gulped. So maybe, just maybe, I hadn’t nailed down enough of the details. I felt a tear escape onto my cheek. Andre, used to overwhelmed brides, reached over to a satin-covered tissue box and slapped it down on the table in front of me.

“Dry your eyes, sweetie. We’ve got work to do,” he said. “You should know what a lucky girl you are. I just removed myself from a wedding on the same day. No one – I repeat, no one – does a wedding like Mr. Andre, but even I have my limits on troublesome brides and monster mothers. As fate would have it, I’m yours.”

He walked over to a filing cabinet and pulled out a large white leather binder. Mr. Andre’s picture was on the front, and underneath that, “Weddings Exclusively by Mr. Andre” was embossed in gold lettering.

“I don’t care what religion you are,” he said. “This, lovey, is your new bible. Carry this with you everywhere and fill it with notes, questions, business cards, quotes and everything – I mean everything – that has to do with your wedding. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” I said and saluted before I could stop myself. Aunt Maggie broke out into a laugh, but Mr. Andre turned quickly, fixing his eyes on her. She quickly stifled her reaction and stood up a little straighter, becoming just another draftee in the world of white satin.

My Review:

This is the third book in this Pecan Bayou series that I have read and I have enjoyed each one. In Buzz Kill Betsy is working on her wedding plans to Leo. She is finding that doing all of the planning herself is a bit overwhelming. So gets some help from wedding planner Mr. Andre. Betsy invites her mother who she has not seen since she was very young shows up and upsets her dad and her Aunt Maggie who raised her. It seems there is one problem after another and then someone dies after using homemade calamine lotion that Betsy had printed the recipe for in the paper under her hints. The ladies from church had made a large batch and it seems that the person who died had used it and had a bad reaction. Now not only does she have to plan her wedding, deal with her mother, mend hurt feelings, she needs to solve a murder. I am sure you will love Buzz Kill as much as I did and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

I received a Copy of this book from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for the review, and the review is honest and my responsibility.

I am always on the look out for something that is natural and organic and good tasting. Wholly Wholesome offers some really great products both ready-to-eat and ready-to-bake products that taste as good or better than any other baked product produced, not only for the natural foods marketplace but for the conventional market as well. They offer baked goods without Artificial Flavors, Colors, Preservatives or Additives • Hydrogenated Fats, Oils or Trans Fatty Acids • Conventionally Refined Sugars or Synthetic Sweeteners • Bleached or Bromated Flours • Irradiated Ingredients.

Wholly Wholesome has a whole line of products including Pies for baking at home or for the in store bakery, Organic Pie Shells, Graham & Chocolate Pie Crust, Cheesecake Bites, Crumble cakes, Bake at Home Cookie Dough and in store bakery cookies.

I tried the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Dough for baking at home. I loved them and so did Rex. They were so easy to make and tasted like something I would make from scratch but in half the time! They were soft and chewy just like I like them. I also love how they smelled while baking - just like a bit of love coming out of the oven. I like that they are 70 % Organic - they also had a chocolate chip cookie mix at the store I went to.

The Wholly Wholesome was launched in 1972 and continues to grow and produce great products. If you would like to buy your own Wholly Wholesome Products you can do so at many local stores including Whole Foods Market and Thriftway stores. You can connect with Wholly Wholesome on Facebook.

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I love when I find something that I have not tried before and love the products! I tried a couple things form Earth Balance and I was very happy with them. All of Earth Balance products are plant-based, vegan, made without artificial ingredients or hydrogenated oils. They are also free of gluten, lactose and eggs. Earth Balance has a whole line of products including spreads, soymilk, dressings, baking sticks, nut butter, culinary spreads, and snacks.

The first product I tried was the coconut & peanut spread and it was really good. I was surprised how much I liked it. It was a great combination. It was smooth and creamy and tasted great on toast and bagels. I also added it to my protein drink and the flavor was great. I think adding it to a stir-fry will be the next thing I try with it. It would be great in cookies too!

The second product I tried was the Original spread. Now I am a girl from Wisconsin so only normally eat real butter. Earth Balance spread was such a big surprise at how much of a butter flavor it had. It was great on toast. The texture was creamy and very spreadable. I liked it for cooking to - it was great for browning onions, garlic, and mushrooms in a pan. I think it will have a place in my kitchen from now on.

You can find Earth Balance products at many local stores including Thriftway, Whole Food and Zupans. You can also connect with earth balance on Facebook and Twitter.

“Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Book Details
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Published by: CreateSpace
Release Date: March 28, 2013
Number of Pages: 242

Synopsis
Brigid Kildare is not your typical hard boiled private eye. But she doesn’t pretend to be. No matrimonial. No child custody. No bodyguard or surveillance work. No process serving. Brigid is strictly data. Asset searches, background searches, computer security, pre-employment screening, and basically any type of records research is what she deals in. And you really could not expect anything else. After all, your average five foot tall, blue eyed, blond (one friend describes her as looking like a Christmas tree angel) is rarely the person you would send out after a bail jumper. Oh, and there is that whole one leg thing – ADA aside, most people don’t think of an amputee as the go to person for a security job.

But in SOCIAL INSECURITY, the first in the Brigid Kildare Mystery Series, professional PI, Brigid Kildare, turns amateur sleuth when old ladies in the Federal Hill area of Providence start to go missing and she can’t get the police to believe her. As her assistant and long time friend, Kevin, puts it: “Honey, if an old lady like Jessica Fletcher can do it, a one-legged PI and her gay PA can do it too!” Brigid solves the mystery, along with an odd cast of friends and family, but not before four old ladies have died, she has caught the eye of a handsome Providence detective, and she discovers that not everyone who is close to her is what they appear to be.

About Kate Eileen Shannon
Kate Eileen Shannon is a Writer, Artist, and sometimes Real Estate Agent – as she says, ‘a purveyor of ephemera and bagatelle’. Trifles. Little things. Here today, gone tomorrow. In other words, a little of this, a bit of that.

She has had three husbands and two children; lived in Ireland, Rhode Island, and Florida; owned a brake repair shop, an art gallery, a farm, and a boat building business; been a Realtor, a title examiner, a real estate closer, and a government employee which led her straight to being unemployed, laid off, made redundant.

Kate is currently living in Rhode Island overlooking the water and a lighthouse; with her husband, Dick Thomas (who won’t let her have a cat); where she spends her time painting, drawing, and of course working on the next book in the Brigid Kildare mystery series, MEDITATED MURDER.

Online links:
Webpage http://kateshannon.com/
Blog http://kateeileenshannon.wordpress.com/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Brigid-Kildare-Mystery-Series/114105325364455
Twitter https://twitter.com/_KateShannon
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/kateeshannon/boards/
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kate-eileen-shannon/60/42a/7a
Google+ https://plus.google.com/114985415367750527192/about/p/pub
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7027461.Kate_Eileen_Shannon
She Writes http://www.shewrites.com/profile/KateEileenShannon
Book Blogs http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/KateEileenShannon

Purchase Links:
Amazon B & N Powell’s Books

Guest Post:

Thank you Kaisy for inviting me to be a guest on your blog. Someone asked me the other day what are the challenges of writing about a sleuth who has a disability. To be honest, no challenge at all. The challenge will be getting people to believe an amputee does all the things Brigid Kildare does. But from the disability angle, it is all real because the fictional Brigid is based on a real person.

I don’t think anyone would create a protagonist with a disability unless they had intimate knowledge of the subject. At least I would hope they wouldn’t. There are elements of the story people will find unbelievable but there are things people will readily recognize, such as a prosthetic with a blade for running, that they wouldn’t have a few years ago.

There are things that are pure invention. And by that I do not mean I made them up, I mean I physically invented them. There is a scene in the book where a “break away leg” is discussed. Almost thirty years ago, when my daughter was four, she decided she wanted to take up horseback riding. I won’t bore you with the details of what I went through to find someone who would give lessons to a four year old amputee, but I finally succeeded. We ran into a problem during the first lesson. Were she to unavoidably fall off the horse, she could not get the prosthetic foot out of the stirrup. Well that would certainly be dangerous as she would be dragged. By the second lesson, I had come up with the break away leg. I took her most recently discarded prosthetic and unscrewed the hinges at the knee. I cut the leg of her pants so there was an upper part on that side like shorts and the lower part, covering the prosthetic, was for appearance and not really attached. In the event she fell, which fortunately she never did, the lower half would stay in the stirrup but she would fall free of it. Why undo the hinges at the knee, why not just cut the pants? Because at that age she had to wear a belt around her waist as she couldn’t manage a suction socket. And even when older she had an attachable belt she sometimes used as the suction didn’t always hold for certain activities.

Heather Mills was known to me before she was ever a blip on Paul McCartney’s radar screen. There was an article about her in a British tabloid. She showed how she unscrewed the foot of her prosthetic to replace with a foot shaped for a high heel. That made my life a living hell as my daughter read the article and was then at the age where she wanted to get her first pair of heels. And let me tell you, medical insurance does not cover spare feet for different shoes. I could have told Sir Paul that woman would be trouble. Prosthetics have advanced and you can now get one that has something in the ankle that adjusts so different height heels can be worn, but not really extreme heels, for that you would still need a special foot and very good balance.

So for me, writing about a sleuth with a disability is no challenge at all. It will just be a problem getting the reader to believe that yes, an amputee can do all those things and sometimes be very creative at managing to do them.

Thank you again Kaisy for having me here and let me just mention the second book, Meditated Murder, will available shortly. And as I am explaining on this tour, it is a serial as opposed to a series. Visit some of the other tour stops to find out what that means. Be sure to comment at each stop to increase your chances of winning one of the books and be sure to leave your email address. . I’ll be announcing the winners on my blog one week after the tour closes, on September 9^th.

My Review:

I liked Social Insecurity ~ I loved Brigid Kildare. Brigid was a smart girl and started saving money and buying property at 16. She was also had a prosthetic leg and was a bit of a detective. She had lots of friends. She rented some of the condo’s and apartments she owned to some older woman - and arranged that their rent was very low so that they could afford their rent. Then 4 of the old ladies move out and the strange thing was they didn’t mention their moving to Brigid who made a point of visiting with them often. When Brigid reported them missing to the police they just said - there was nothing strange about people moving. So Brigid and her PA start doing some searching along with the handsome police detective Earl. What do they find out? Are they able to find the ladies before it is to late? What would someone want with these women that had no money? You will need to read Social Insecurity to find out.

5 autographed paperback books will be given away across the tour

with the entry being simply leaving a comment.

The chances of winning increases with blog visit each blog and leave a comment.

Tour Participants
August 19 – Omnimystery News Guest Post
August 20 – Kaisy Daisy’s CornerReview & Guest Post
August 21 – Socrates’ Book Review Blog Guest Post
August 22 – Mommasez…Review & Guest Post
August 23 – readalot Review & Guest Post
August 25 - Chloe Gets A Clue Interview
August 26 – Dru’s Book Musings Guest Post
August 27 – Musings and Ramblings Review & Guest Post
August 28 – Melina’s Book Blog Guest Post
August 31 – Must Read Faster Review & Guest Post
September 1 – A Chick Who Reads Review & Guest Post
September 2 – THE SELF-TAUGHT COOK Review

I received a Copy of this book from the author for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for the review, and the review is honest and my responsibility.