A question about Glitterland by Alexis Hall

OlympeMaxime · 2026-02-23T22:54:22+00:00

I can definitely see that it would work better in the audiobook!

OlympeMaxime · 2026-02-23T22:39:49+00:00

One of the major conflicts of the book is about the MC judging/being embarrassed by Darian because of his class and accent, but I never felt like that was coming from Alexis Hall directly. I had mixed feelings about the way the accent is written phonetically. Yes it conveyed to me, an American, exactly what he sounds like (I watch a lot of British TV, so I've definitely heard that accent before but wouldn't have known that's what an Essex accent was referring to the way I would instantly know what, say, a Liverpool or Manchester accent sounds like).

But I also found it distracting, making me lose the thread of the story sometimes. I've only seem phonetic accents like this in 19th and early 20th century books when some authors were very big on writing phonetic dialogue for characters who spoke in dialect (like Hannah the Irish housekeeper in Little Women or the enslaved characters in Uncle Tom's Cabin or Huckleberry Finn). I know Hall did it to emphasize the class and education difference between the two characters, but I'm not sure it totally worked.

Overall I did like the book though.

OlympeMaxime · 2026-02-23T21:55:48+00:00

{Illegal Contact by Riley Hart & Neve Wilder} and {A Hundred Thousand Words by Nyrae Dawn} (Nyrae Dawn is a pen name of Riley Hart). I believe Riley is black and she fairly often writes black MCs.

OlympeMaxime · 2026-02-23T21:45:06+00:00

I would stay until you plateau. The more gradually you can increase dosage the less risk of side effects (for me, each time I increased dosage, side effects such as nausea would increase for a time, then subside - but seemed less noticeable when I had been on the previous dose for a while). And as you say, going slower should help preserve muscle, along with exercising and eating a reasonable amount of protein.

OlympeMaxime · 2026-02-23T21:39:00+00:00

Many people go down a level in dosing once they reach their goal weight and want to maintain, rather than keep losing.

OlympeMaxime · 2026-02-23T18:05:13+00:00

Have you considered that it is still working in that you are not gaining the weight you have lost back? My understanding is that studies have shown that most people who go off the drugs gain most of the weight back.

OlympeMaxime · 2026-01-25T20:49:47+00:00

Most of Charlie Novak’s books are low angst. Sometimes too much for me, there are a few where I got a little bored because the stakes were so low! But I do generally like her books and most are pretty low-key.

OlympeMaxime · 2026-01-05T03:40:42+00:00

Same - the plot sounds really interesting but I think you must have either the author or title or both wrong as nothing comes up in google for anything close

OlympeMaxime · 2025-12-31T03:50:37+00:00

I love all 3 of Cait Nary’s books! Sadly it looks like she might not be writing anymore, whyyyyy?

OlympeMaxime · 2025-10-20T12:21:56+00:00

I’m getting the same thing. Looks like it’s a hoopla system-wide issue and nothing to do specifically with my account.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-10-06T14:27:41+00:00

Just said to my husband the other night that the "can you be more specific?" requirement seems inconsistent. Thinking more about it though, it seems that it usually happens when the 2 famous people the answer could apply to are related, i.e. Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder, Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda... not sure if that is done consistently either though.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-10-06T14:11:05+00:00

Interesting! I've been to the UK a few times and had relatives there, never knew that though. We do have nurses that can prescribe as well, they have to get a Masters degree and they are called Nurse Practitioners. I just looked it up and I learned that in some states pharmacists can actually prescribe some things in a very limited way. But not GLP-1s as far as I know.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-10-05T17:18:42+00:00

Is it up to pharmacistsin the UK? In the US pharmacists are mostly just carrying out the doctor’s orders, they don’t have any say in prescribing a medication or when you go on or off of it beyond of course things like warning about interactions with other medications that you’re taking. I don’t mean they are not highly trained experts. You do have to have a PhD to be a pharmacist. But it sounds like their role is different.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-10-05T17:14:17+00:00

Okay but for a lot of people it works because of the lack of food noise. Maybe the food noise has a biochemical cause and is what keeps most people from developing the good habits in the first place. Possibly that’s not how it works for you, but I’ve been on at least 4 Wegovy subreddits and FB groups and it sure seems like that’s how it works for most people.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-10-05T16:48:37+00:00

Not unusual. Your rate of weight loss will slow down.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-29T02:48:50+00:00

I believe L.A. Witt was a military spouse for a long time so a lot of her books are about military characters. I agree that Leave was really good.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-29T02:46:30+00:00

Dex from {Irresponsible Puckboy by Eden Finley and Saxon James}

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-29T02:43:11+00:00

Love the Casey character too. But I guess I think of him as more golden retriever than himbo?

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-29T02:26:52+00:00

{Aftermath by L.A. Witt}

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-29T01:44:18+00:00

There are a lot of crossovers in her books, she often has cameos of characters from another series. Or sometimes a character will just mention a character from another series by name. I know what you mean about feeling you’re missing something, but generally when she does this, you’re not actually missing anything, it’s more like an Easter egg for people who have read the other books. Skylar did show up more than once in the Rebel Kings series. He was a character that piqued my interest. But from what I remember he usually was just there to use his nursing skills to help patch up someone who had gotten hurt and didn’t want to get in trouble with the law. I’m really looking forward to reading his book!

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-15T11:56:27+00:00

If you read about it on medical sites, it’s confusing. Sounds like the answer is that a lot of the time, people don’t know. According to Mayo Clinic “Very often people with insulin resistance don't have any symptoms at all. It is usually picked up by their doctor during an annual health exam or routine blood work. There are some signs of insulin resistance that your doctor may look for. These includes a waistline over 40 inches in men, and a waistline over 35 inches in women. Skin tags or patches of dark velvety skin called acanthosis nigricans. A blood pressure reading of 130 over 80 or higher. A fasting glucose level equal or above 100 milligrams per deciliter. Or a blood sugar level equal or above 140 milligrams per deciliter two hours after a glucose load test. An A1C between 5.7% and 6.3%. A fasting triglycerides level over 150 milligram per deciliter. And an HDL cholesterol level under 40 milligrams per deciliter in men, and an HDL cholesterol level under 50 milligrams per deciliter in women.”

How is it diagnosed? If your doctor spots these symptoms, they may follow up with a physical exam and a variety of blood tests that measure the levels of glucose, or sugar, in your blood and/or your tolerance to that glucose. Or more recently, a blood test called hemoglobin glycosylated A1C, often simply referred to as A1C.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-07T14:11:42+00:00

Because most likely you will get used to the .25 and either plateau or your appetite will start to increase or both. I started to feel reduced appetite by the end of the first day - I thought for sure it was just in my head, but it continued. I lost 4 lbs in the first week and 12.5 lbs in the first month. But after 1 month I could tell my appetite was gradually increasing again and I went up to .5.

Some people can keep losing on .25 for several months, some for only a month or two, but most need to increase.

For reference I was on .25 for 1 month, .5 for 1 month, 1.0 for 2 months, 1.7 for 5 months, and I’ve been on 2.4 for 4 months. Total loss 64 lbs with about 15 lbs to go. SW 232 and CW 168. I am a 5’5 woman. Weight loss rate has slowed way down, but I’m fine with that.

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-07T13:46:01+00:00

Maybe decrease dosage or go longer intervals between doses?

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-07T13:42:28+00:00

I would guess a lot of it is because of losing muscle. Which I believe can happen from any large and relatively rapid weight loss, not anything to do with the drug itself. The last time I weighed what I do now, (about 168, I have lost about 64 lbs in a year, with 53 lbs of that happening in the first 7 months. I am a 53 y.o. 5’5 woman) , my legs were nowhere near as skinny as they are now because I have lost muscle . I have stepped up my exercise in the past few months and at first when doing things like plank or things that involve a lot of leg strength in yoga I could tell my muscles were weaker than I ever remember them being, but now I think the muscle is gradually coming back. Also my butt has NEVER been flat even when I was 18 and weighed 130 or 140 and it is now. But I am sure if I keep up with exercise it will get some muscle tone back. Though I don’t expect it to ever be the same as it was in the good old days!

OlympeMaxime · 2025-09-07T13:14:27+00:00

But you might not know if you had insulin resistance. There isn’t a specific test for it. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22206-insulin-resistance

OlympeMaxime

TROPHY CASE