Randomness...

 TV shows & series that I really miss:  

⏺Dwight in Shining Armor

⏺The Big Leap

⏺The Eco Challenge (which was the best adventure race ever!)

TV shows I'm very happy are coming back soon:

The Amazing Race

Project Runway

New album I am totally loving:

(Nate Smith:  California Gold)

 

And my list of 'glad things' from last month: 

• 
  One of the fourth graders I work with told me I was her favorite teacher.
• I bought a new game called Trails that is a lot of fun to play.
• My nephew got his first 'grown up' engineering job which made my entire family cheer.
• I got a cute dragon squishmallow for my half birthday that totally makes me smile. 
  
• A friend gave me daffodil bulbs about twenty years ago and I planted them in the front of my house, and every year they're the first flowers to come up; they remind me spring is on the way. I'm always grateful and glad to see Susie's daffodils blooming.
• And Beth Brower's Emma M. Lion books continue to amuse and delight; I've now read the first seven books in the series and loved them all. Though I am sad there's only one more to go. 

Cold Burn of Magic by Jennifer Estep

 

What it's about:  Lila Merriweather is an orphan. And a thief. She carries her mother's black blade and knows how to placate the magical faeries and monsters that live in and around Cloudburst Falls, West Virginia. And she has a rare magical talent that she keeps secret. She's also been roped into playing bodyguard to Devon Sinclair, only son and handsome heir of the powerful Sinclair family. Because someone's trying to kill him. And her, too. 

What I thought: Talk about a fun mix of modern and magic! There's intrigue and mystery, action and adventure. And I loved Lila and Devon; they're great characters. Lila is sarcastic and smart and can beat Devon in a sword fight, while he's got his own secrets and talents. Plus, he likes her. Lila's also determined to find out who murdered her mother...and to get revenge. The second book in this fantasy trilogy, Dark Heart of Magic, is equally well-written and compelling. I loved both books and can't wait to read the third.

Happy Reading!

 

Top Ten Tuesday

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is BOOKS SET IN ANOTHER TIME. 

And I had a lot of fun coming up with ten of my favorite historical fiction reads...all set in very different times and places. 

King and Goddess by Judith Tarr

(Egypt, 15th century B.C.)

Jerusalem by Cecelia Holland

(Holy Land, 1187 AD)

Picture Maker by Penina Keen Spinka

(North America & Greenland, 14th century)

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

(Italy, 1327)

The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier

(Paris, 1490)

Tokkaido Road by Lucia St. Clair Robson

(Feudal Japan, 17th century)

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk

(Istanbul, 16th century)

The Canterbury Papers by Judith Koll Healey

(England, 12th century during reign of King John)

The Queen's Vow by C.W. Gortner

(A novel of Queen Isabella of Castile, 1451-1504)

Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle

(A novel of Katherine Parr, 1512-1548)

Happy Reading!

Haiku Reviews...

 

Summit's Edge by Sara Driscoll

When a hijacked plane

crashes, Meg and Hawk join the 

risky mountain search.

An FBI K-9 Mystery .... 308 pages .... 4.5/5 stars.

(One of my favorite mystery series!)

A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen

Boom! Then time resets.

They're stuck in a loop. Why?!

And how do they get out?

Science Fiction .... 346 pages .... 3.5/5 stars.

(Great beginning. But I felt the story lost some momentum in the middle. And while I liked the ending, I didn't love it. Still a good read.)

Under Loch and Key by Lana Ferguson

She finds family

in Scotland along with a

curse, magic, and love.

Paranormal romance .... 386 pages .... 4/5 stars.

(Key and Lachlan's romance is full of sparks, lots of spice, and the Loch Ness monster, too. It's a fun one.)

Happy Reading!

Please Tell Me by Mike Omer

 

First lines:  Kathy limped alongside the road in the dark, hugging her doll to her chest. The doll was scared, because of the shadows, which was why Kathy clutched her so tightly. Sometimes, when you're scared, the only things that helps is a hug.

The plot:  Kathy is eight when she's abducted; when she shows up on the side of the road a year later she won't tell anyone where she's been. In fact, she won't speak at all. Child therapist, Dr. Robin Hart, is called in to help. She uses play therapy to help Kathy process her traumatic memories. "But as their work continues, Kathy's playtime takes a grim turn: a doll stabs another doll, a tiny figurine is chained to a plastic toy couch. In every session, another toy dies. But the most disturbing detail of all? Kathy seems to be playacting real unsolved murders." Which makes Robin turn to the police. Because if there is a serial killer out there, Kathy just might hold the secret to his or her identity. 

My thoughts:  The chapters in this quietly suspenseful psychological thriller flip between Robin, Kathy's mother, Claire, and Nathaniel King, the police detective working on the case, as well as a few chapters from the POV of the killer himself. My favorite part was Robin's work with Kathy; I found their play therapy interesting. I also really liked Nathaniel.  My least favorite character was Robin's selfish and narcissistic mother. What a piece of work! The mystery was well-paced. And the murders, though dark and based on horror movie murders, are never described in graphic or gory detail, which I appreciated. And I thought the ending was very gripping. All in all, I really liked this mystery. 

My rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Happy Reading!

Top Ten Tuesday...

 

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly meme hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl.

This week's theme is:  BOOKS I NEVER REVIEWED.  Which should have been an easy one to figure out. But I wavered over which ten books to choose. Should I choose ten books from off my own shelves? Books I rated 5 stars on Goodreads? Books I read before I ever started blogging? Romances in honor of February? Classics? Favorite kid books?

See how I sometimes way overthink things? 

So, I decided to write down some of the reasons why I don't review all of the books I read instead. Whether there will be 10 or not is yet to be seen.  

REASONS WHY I DON'T REVIEW EVERY BOOK I READ:

1. The book is too long or the plot is too complicated to be easily summed up in one or two paragraphs. Writing really long reviews is not my thing. And I can't decide if it's because I'm too tired, or just lazy. Or because I just can't think of anything profound to say. 

2. Everyone else has already read and reviewed the book. If I've seen it on three or more blogs, I don't always feel it necessary to review it myself. Though there are exceptions.

3. I didn't really like the book. I don't like to write negative reviews or comments, so if I hated the way a book ended, or didn't even make it to the end, I'm not going to mention it on my blog. I prefer to write about the books I did really like instead.

4. The book is only a 3-star read. There's nothing really wrong with it, but I didn't end up loving it. It's a middling read soon to be forgotten...and I just never know what to say about those kinds of books.

5. And sometimes a book is so amazing I don't know how to put into words all the things I loved about it. Though I do try to at least mention those books on one of my Randomness or Quick recommendation posts.

There you have it. 5 reasons I don't review every book I read. Oh! I just thought of a sixth reason. I read a lot of books (last year I read over 200) and frankly, I don't have it in me to even try to review that many books. Because I read for fun, and forcing myself to try and review every book I read just feels like work. And who wants blogging to feel like that? 

Happy reading!

Home Sweet Homicide by Craig Rice

 

From the blurb:  "Unoccupied and unsupervised while their mother is working furiously on her new book, the children of widowed mystery writer Marion Carstairs find diversion wherever they can. So when the kids hear two gunshots at the house next door, they jump at the chance to launch their own amateur investigation into the murder--after all, why shouldn't they? They know everything the cops do about crime scenes, having read all about them in their mother's novels. They also know what her literary sleuths would do in such a situation. Plus, if the children solve the mystery before the police, it will do wonders for the sales of their mother's novels. And maybe, they can hook her up with the lead detective on the case at the same time."

My thoughts:  I don't always enjoy reading books about precocious children--I often find them annoying rather than funny--so I wasn't sure I was going to like the three Carstairs children. But Dinah, the most responsible and also oldest at 14, April, the dramatic and all-knowing middle child, and Archie, their impish and active 10-year-old brother, quickly grew on me. Despite their bickering and disagreements, I loved how they worked together to solve the murder of Mrs. Sanford and get a date for their mother with Detective Bill Smith. Their King Tut alphabet language and 1944 slang sprinkled throughout the book was also fun. And their meddling in the investigation, from lying to the police to hiding clues and interrogating suspects on their own, led to some very entertaining antics. This classic mystery was unexpectedly comedic. And I enjoyed every page of it. 

Happy Reading!

P.S. Craig Rice is the pen name of Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig who, in 1946, became the first mystery writer to appear on the cover of Time magazine.