I received free product in exchange for publishing this post in collaboration with GoGreenHemp CBD. I have currently been in the market to try CBD products, and I'm excited to be trying out products from GoGreenHemp CBD. This article has been provided by the company.




If someone would have told you years ago that CBD would make an impact on society and cause a disruption in the health industry, you would have thought they were crazy. Because of the stigma and lengthy restrictions, it would have been hard to believe. Due to propaganda, CBD has been frowned upon for many years for its relation to its close cousin THC. Before the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill CBD was often associated with THC, and consumers easily confused it for products that get you “high." Today is a new age and with a new day comes new opportunities. CBD is the new opportunity that has the world paying close attention to its natural medicinal and healing benefits.



What is CBD?

CBD, short for Cannabidoil, is one of over hundred chemical compounds found inside the hemp plant. CBD is a close relative of THC and for that reason, CBD has been grouped with the thought that it’s harmful for the brain and creates an intoxicating effect. Although CBD and THC are very similar on the molecular level, they do have major differences. The biggest difference is the ability to cause an intoxicating feeling which happens when someone uses THC. CBD on the other hand focuses on the medicinal health benefits and will not leave an individual feeling “high." One of the most impressive attributes of this incredible extract is that it is extremely versatile and can be found in various products. Even your four-legged best friend can consume CBD as it comes in various forms from CBD dog chews to CBD oil for cats.



The Marketplace

The passing of the 2018 Farm Bill allowed the cultivation of hemp as well as allowing the transfer of hemp-derived products across state lines for commercial or other purposes. This has led to an explosion in the CBD industry, with new brands appearing every day. As a result, more and more companies are establishing themselves daily. Due to the unregulated market, anyone can come into the industry and create a business. Although there are many CBD companies and brands in the industry, not all CBD is created equally. Many companies false advertise (making claims) and cut corners in their manufacturing processes. It is important to do your research and learn more about the marketplace prior to making a CBD purchase.



Quality you can trust

Despite some companies cutting corners in the industry, there are several companies setting the bar and gold standards on good business practices through transparency and trust. Everyone make claims their CBD is the best on the market, but what really makes one CBD product better than another? We have compiled a list below for things to look for in the marketplace. We know how difficult it may be for a first timer to select the right company, so we’ve made it a little simpler and added guidelines to use when seeking a reputable CBD company.





Guidelines to Follow When Searching The CBD Marketplace

Is it a reputable company? (How long has the company been in business?)
Although the CBD industry is relatively new, you will find some companies who have been operating for years. This expertise does pay off, after all with age comes wisdom.

What’s the origin of their hemp (where is it from?) and how is it extracted?
We strongly urge buyers to buy CBD products made from hemp grown in the USA (as growing standards are significantly stricter). The two main types of extraction we have seen are CO2 and ethanol. We urge customers to go with the more common CO2 extraction.

How transparent is the company?
Make sure third-party lab results are always readily available and displayed publicly on their website. Companies displaying Transparency are the ones with quality products. Always look for ingredients and full panel testing as well to ensure you are receiving products which are pesticide, heavy metal, and microbial free.

Up-to-date test results
We also encourage you to ONLY buy from companies who have up-to-date test results (at most dated 6-8 months after the testing).

Can you easily reach a customer service representative?
Is it easy to reach customer service? Can you call and ask questions? This is always a must when purchasing any product to ensure you get the service you expect.




As we have learned, with a saturated market not everyone will be forthcoming about the quality of their products or services, but we’ve searched and found a company that checks off all the points and has been setting the gold standard of transparency and excellence since 2016. They're one of the oldest CBD-only companies with one of the most diverse product lines and use a clean CO2 extraction process with third-party lab testing with batch numbers to ensure quality. If you’re looking for a Broad-Spectrum company (0.00% THC) that has a reputation of honesty and trust, look no further than GoGreenHemp CBD . They have a variety of products from CBD patches, CBD gummies, and many more! You are sure to find a product that fits your needs!

PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book that passes the Bechdel test

Other PS 2020 reading prompts this would satisfy: A book that's published in 2020, A book with the same title as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it, A book about or by a woman in STEM, A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement (advanced)

TW: Stalking, gaslighting, suicide, murder, violence



When given the opportunity to read You Are Not Alone, I obviously jumped at the chance. Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen are quite the dynamic duo when it comes to suspenseful and twisty thrillers. I've never read any of their solo novels, but together, they truly seem to work great as a pair.


Shay Miller is unfulfilled. Her roommate is man she's in love with, whose girlfriend visits often. She has no friends, and no prospects. When she witnesses a horrific event one morning in the subway station, her life is quickly flipped upside down. She's thrown into a whirlwind of anxiety and PTSD, and stumbles right into the path of the Cassandra and Jane Moore, who quickly take her under their wing. Only now, her situation has spiraled into "too good to be true" territory, which has become quite suspect.


It's funny how the nitpicky things become nonessential when looking back. I rated The Wife Between Us with three stars, but considering it now, I actually really enjoyed the story and thought it was incredibly shocking and twisty. I also enjoyed An Anonymous Girl. As for You Are Not Alone, I thought I was going down this path of figuring out what the twist would be, but boy was I wrong. I totally didn't see the twist coming - but looking back into the story, it makes so much sense. You can follow the pieces and connect the dots, and it leads you right to it. Hendricks and Pekkanen have a way of leading you down into a completely immersive story and then switching paths hard enough to give you whiplash, though the feeling can be quite enjoyable when it's done in a completely metaphorical way.

Something I didn't like, though, was how many of the characters that I thought were going to be much more involved in the story basically disappeared about two-thirds of the way through. They were absolutely integral to the plot, but eventually just disappeared, which was weird and kind of awkward. Seriously, where did they go? It made the story feel like pieces were missing, so I felt a bit unsatisfied by the end of the book.

Something else is these books seem to be written for a very particular demographic. I do enjoy the stories and I get really attached to a Hendricks/Pekkanen novel - they are seriously page-turners. But when reading any of their stories, the majority of the characters are all very White, very blonde, very fit, and very well off. Even the characters who are struggling financially seem to be rich. The struggle seems unrealistic. I have struggled, and have come from a disadvantaged background, and the "struggles" of these characters seem unrelatable and unrealistic. These people live in NYC with a savings account and enough money to buy a $200 top on a credit card with a temp job. The characters are a bit too "perfect," even in their imperfections. The main police officer in the story was Black, but other than that, all three books have lacked diversity (in ways even outside of race). I would like to see more diverse characters in future Hendricks/Pekkanen novels.






Overall, the story was just as shocking and twisty as the last two books from this duo. You Are Not Alone was definitely a page-turner, and I'll likely read any future novels this pair releases. But I would really like to see more diversity in their stories.





Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆














*I received this book free from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own.

PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge Prompt: A bildungsroman

Other PS 2020 reading prompts this would satisfy: A book with the same time as a movie or TV show but is unrelated to it, A book about or by a woman in STEM, A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads

TW: Child abuse, pedophilia, abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, poaching, violent death, misogyny



I was very interested in the synopsis of Real Life, but wasn't totally sure if I'd like the book. I often find that some of the story can be lost in translation with a book not originally written in English, and I often have a hard time connecting with the characters and/or story. This wasn't the case with Real Life. I was hooked almost immediately. Even translated, the book was beautiful and poetic, while also being quite psychologically terrifying and thrilling.


An unknown narrator tells this story of a broken family, one that feeds on violence and hatred. At 8 years old, the narrator and her little brother Sam witness a horrible accident that leaves one dead. Sam is so obviously traumatized by the event that the narrator makes it her life's mission to learn physics and build a time machine that will take her back in time to change her brother's life for the better. The story is told over the course of seven years, in which the narrator strives to protect her brother. 


This book was tough to read. In the first couple of pages, there's a lot of talk of poaching and taxidermy, which made me feel quite ill. I grew up in a home full of taxidermy deer, but this book was different somehow. There is a lot of violence, towards human and animals, and it was truly sickening to read.

But the story being told is so heartbreakingly beautiful, it's hard to turn away from. I was so immersed in the story I didn't even realize the narrator is unnamed until I started writing this review. She just wants to protect her brother, and deep down her mother as well, though she unwillingly finds her pathetic.

Alongside the narrator, we meet many characters who contribute to the success and hope of our unknown protagonist. There are also characters who are more fiercely evil. But each character adds to the depth of the story. Though just over 200 pages and over a course of seven years, the story flows with a prose that creates meaning in every small detail. I'm not one to analyze and examine books, but for someone who enjoys finding deeper meaning, this book is a minefield.





Though haunting, terrifying, and immensely sickening at times, Real Life is a wonderfully told story. While it could've been a much longer piece of work, I think the short length added to the beauty of it. Most of the book is really difficult to get through due to content, but it's not an unrealistic story, which makes it that much harder to stomach. Though it's literary fiction (mixed with psychological thriller), I would very much recommend this to those who enjoyed memoirs such as A Wolf at the Table or The Glass Castle.



Goodreads rating: ★★★★☆














*Thanks so much to World Editions for the review copy of Real Life, and for allowing me to participate in the blog tour. All opinions are my own.

When it comes to major holidays, birthdays, gift-giving season - hubby and I like to share experiences instead of physical gifts. I mean, don't get me wrong... we may go the route of small gifts (I love a good book). But typically, we like to go somewhere and/or do something together. And whenever we go somewhere, whether it's a full-out vacation or just a day trip, we like to buy a souvenir to commemorate our experience. Instead of picking out tees that get shoved in a drawer and never worn, or shot glasses that take up space, or gaudy knick-knacks. Instead, we go the route of cheap, small, and convenient... magnets.

I talk more about our magnet collecting tradition in this post, and I share more about the magnets we collected in 2018 here.

In 2019, we took two trips - New York and Helen, Georgia.




As a birthday/graduation celebration, we went to New York. We stayed in Queens with family, and took some time to visit to Manhattan. It was incredibly exciting for me because it was my first trip to the NYC. I definitely want to go back because a weekend just wasn't enough to even touch the surface of everything to do.





In September, as an anniversary trip and to attend a friend's wedding, we took a trip to Helen. It was a fun way to spend time together and also celebrate a friend. It was incredibly low-key for us, and we enjoyed spending some beautiful time in nature. I loved that we got to take a hike up to Anna Ruby Falls (for the second time), which we really enjoyed (and got in some great physical activity).


In the spring, I also took a trip to Mobile, Alabama. But there was no magnet involved, as I went with a friend for a conference.
















This post is in collaboration with the #LoveBlog2020 link-up. Today's post is co-hosted by Brita from Belle Brita, Tyler from An Aspiring Heroine, and myself. Please visit my co-hosts and link-up below. You can find the prompts for the entire month here.

An InLinkz Link-up

PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge Prompt: A book by a trans or nonbinary author

Other PS 2020 reading prompts this would satisfy: A bildungsroman, A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads

TW: Discrimination against non-binary gender people, child abandonment



I am very into YA books lately, and was thrilled when someone in a book group I'm in offered to send I Wish You All the Best my way. Before their post, I had never heard of the novel, but I am so grateful to have been given an opportunity to read it. This is another book that made me really think about my own actions and ways of thinking, which is one of my favorite things about YA, which offer such opportunity to read diverse stories about diverse characters from diverse authors.


Ben has a secret, one they no longer want to hold in. They are nonbinary, and are ready to share this integral part of their identity with their parents. But things don't go as planned, and they get kicked out of the house. Shoeless, phoneless, and alone, Ben calls their estranged sister for help. She rushes to their side, and takes them in. Now Ben's halfway through senior year, in a new place, in a new school, and worried about having to come out again and again. They just want to get through senior year, so they can feel like they can finally be whole and open about their identity.


I went into this book and was hooked by page one. Ben is such a likeable character, one that I really connected with right away. There were absolutely times where I got a bit frustrated with them and wanted to shout "just be honest!," but I had to remind myself of when they'd been honest and how that was such a negative experience for them. This book really made me think about Ben's situation and how the situation translates to real life. It made me think about how we make assumptions about people - not just their gender identity, but the assumptions we make about all kinds of things. It truly reiterated to me that we never know what folks are going through, and we have to be able provide a place of comfort, vulnerability, and support, but also allow folks to share with us when they're ready.

Each of the characters in I Wish You All the Best were so real. I felt so connected to so many of them. I appreciated Ben's sister and brother-in-law, with their flaws, but also because they were trying to be good humans. I enjoy when a character is realistically flawed, and those types of characters were apparent in their flaws and their goodness within this novel. I mostly loved Ben and Nathan, who were both precious and so human, and oddly opposites. I really appreciated their friendship and firm connection to each other.






This has absolutely been one of the best books I've read all year. While I've read books written by nonbinary or trans authors, I have never read a book with a main character who identified as nonbinary, and I loved reading a book from the perspective of someone with that identity. As trans and nonbinary identities are not uncommon, I hope to see more and more fiction novels released with protagonists with identities other than cis in the future.





Goodreads rating: ★★★★★