Clean Sweep

"I know this isn't what you are looking for, but has a similar vibe and is really a cool concept. Happy hunting! Sounds like a great book"

"Meh. I went into this with extremely high expectations and I was severely disappointed. That being said I will still be ready the next book in the series."

"Gonna start on Serpents Wake. Let's c how that turns out. :)"

"What can I say about this book...two stars because despite itself, there was some useful advice. The problem is, I can’t tell WHICH advice was useful, because there was enough obviously inaccurate information and enough lack of fact checking that I don’t know what to trust. <br/><br/>First you should know this book is published in Australia, and ostensibly targeted to a global audience, but it isn’t aware of the many Australian-isms that make much of the advice difficult to follow (what is a doona? What is methylated spirits? Toilet soap? Etc). Nothing wrong with an Australian book of course, and my canadian perspective isn’t the only valid one, but it would have been useful to have that context or a glossary. <br/><br/>Second, this book has a single page on decluttering, one page per chapter on “clever” home upgrades (an odd choice of word but presumably a play on “smart home” combined with green choices), and has no mention at all about destressing your home. Detoxing your home is a frequent theme, but this book contradicts itself all over the place. Examples of chemicals recommended for household cleaning use include malathion, permethrin, kerosene, methyl hydrate, petrol, acetate, turpentine. Not that I inherently have anything against these chemicals, but they seem at odds with the general thrust of the book. <br/><br/>Third, the author has no bio or credentials to give credence to the research that’s been done. <br/><br/>Fourth, there are some actually inaccurate statements such as that DEET in banned in the US - it was created in the USA and has never been banned there. <br/><br/>Fifth, despite supposedly being about de cluttering and destressing, in order to implement all the DIY cleaning recipes listed here I would need a cupboard of ingredients and a lot of extra time to make up recipes each time I cleaned. <br/><br/>Upsides of the book:<br/>- I’ll always take an effort at greener choices<br/>- lots of DIY home cleaner recipes, most of which seem safe and legitimate, even if a bunch include bizarre and obscure ingredients.<br/>- included some useful information explaining the chemistry of laundry detergents and the properties of various fabrics<br/>- I felt inspired to take better care of my stuff and clean more<br/>- good to get some talk about repairing clothing in<br/><br/>This book was written in 2004 so perhaps the discussion about how to clean your VHS player is forgivably outdated, and some of this nontoxic life stuff may have been more cutting edge at the time, which could explain why many of the suggestions are actually far from low-tox. <br/><br/>Overall, Skip this book. Or use it exclusively for its stain removal section. A better title would have been: “clean sweep: how a light-green household can clean everything with DIY solutions”"

"Read this series and Kate Daniels series by this author and loved them."

"I took forever to get around to reading this. I started reading this when there were only a few parts online, but I have to admit, I hate reading on the computer. I bought this and then forgot about it. It has sat, in my kindle, lonely and neglected. Why didn't I read this sooner? It was great fun. I think reading it part by part is not for me (I'm too impatient) and knowing I will have quite a while to wait if I want to wait for the second one to come out on ebook.<br/><br/>For being an internet weekly story, this was well thought out. Ilona and Gordon pointed out at the end of this ebook how you can't go back and change something once you post it online. But I think they did a very good job on the story anyway, without being able to go back and redo it. It's fun and the world is exciting. I'm intrigued with the few stories that might be revealed later (please, please, please let them be worked out!) and the general idea of an innkeeper. Leave it to Ilona and Gordon to come up with something fun and unique time after time."

"#first_book_in_series "

"i would recommend this for people who don't like spicy books, as this has barely any romance and no explicit scenes or words"

"Fantastic blend of Sci-fi and Fantasy. Definitely worth the read."

"Yes it was a very good story. Nice mix of paranormal science fiction romance-ish even some, how do you say humor? Dark humor. Enjoyed it immensely"