It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? a place to meet up and share what you have been, and are about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment and er… add to your groaning TBR pile! So welcome in everyone. This meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.
Jen Vincent, Teach Mentor Texts, and Kellee of Unleashing Readers decided to give It’s Monday! a kid-lit focus. If you read and review books in children’s literature – picture books, chapter books, middle-grade novels, young adult novels, or anything in those genres – join them.
Happy Monday (well, as happy as a Monday can be…lol) everyone and I hope you all had a great weekend!!
We had another hot, but laidback, weekend. It’s too hot and humid out to do anything outside (the humidity today is 96% and was similar over the weekend). We ended up watching the Olympics, eating homemade Chinese food, and just enjoying the AC.
Loki and Jesper’s mom had her vet appointment last week. She is around 2 years old, which surprised us because we thought she was younger. She was negative for feline leukemia, FIV, and heartworms which was another huge relief. She had a laceration on her back paw but it was healing, so the vet didn’t do anything but give her an antibiotic shot. She was underweight (barely 6lbs) but it wasn’t because of worms (she didn’t have any). It was because she was starving (well until we started feeding her). She got her vaccines and I dropped her off at her temporary foster (a good friend of mine). She gets spayed this coming Thursday and my friend will keep her until August 20th. That’s when she will be transported to New Jersey to the rescue who will put her up for adoption.
We are in the home stretch before school starts. I am waiting on Miss R’s teacher assignment and paperwork for Mr. Z. I need to turn those in at Open House in order to get his schedule. Miss B, on the other, will get her schedule two ways. One way is through PowerSchool and the other way is through her Open House. I also still have yet to buy school supplies. The supply list for 2nd grade is short (3 things) and 8th grade only has the basics (we have to see what the individual teachers want). 10th grade, nothing has been posted.
I have read 3 books since Wednesday. I got stuck on Sip Lake and struggled to read it. But, I powered through!!
I am still behind on writing my reviews. I wrote 2 over the weekend (which I never do) and I have 3 more to write….sigh. I meant to write 2 of those yesterday but I decided to watch Infinity War and End Game back to back followed by the ending ceremonies of the Olympics.
What I am Reading Now:
Goodness is much easier to corrupt than it is to hold on to. And for Natasha, a woman reeling from the pain of losing a loved one, evil is all the more tempting. Luck or misfortune spirits Natasha away to the foreign Court of Velaris in a quest for a suitor but instead secures her a place among Velarian royalty. Craving revenge, Natasha makes use of this opportunity to enact her plans as she navigates the lush court where aristocracy is a double-edged blade. But when she befriends her soon-to-be husband Mikhail, the Beloved Prince, Natasha makes a deadly mistake. She captures the attention of the debonair Darkling Prince; a villainous man meant to ascend the Velarian throne.
Enamored, the Darkling Prince charms Natasha, and soon the two feel a forbidden emotion captivate their stoic, scabrous hearts. But with the existence of a violent rebel group capable of cataclysmic damage, there is little time for love. With war brewing amidst the enigmatic kingdom, the royals must become all the more cunning and devious if they wish to triumph over their adversaries. What draws the insidious line between right and wrong when it comes to a battle of survival? For Natasha, nothing is too far, too light, too bloody, too evil.
Soon, the only reflection Natasha sees in her mirror’s beveled glass is that of an Evil Queen. Often, the cost of survival is more frightening than the beasts of death. But that’s what gives the Queen of Shadow’s beauty an edge: she wears her darkness adorned about her throat like the grandest of all diamonds, ebony, and bloodred in shade.
I started reading Fairest last night. I only got through the prologue but it has me wanting more!! If you couldn’t tell from the blurb, this is a Snow White retelling from the Evil Queen’s POV. I have read only one other book (Forest of a Thousand Lanterns) written from her POV and I loved it!! So can’t wait to read how this story will be.
What I plan on reading this week:
This week is all about the ARCs from NetGalley and I am hoping to cut down on that pile…sigh. I always go overboard with them. Thankfully, the books that I am reading are by authors I have already read before or I have seen good reviews for.
One of the most notorious cowboys in Cold River, Jensen Kittredge always has willing women with sweet smiles vying for a place in his bed. So when the prissy high school librarian sidles up to him in the most disreputable bar in town with a scowl on her face, he has no idea what to make of it. Much less the attraction he feels toward the bespectacled creature who wants something from him… but not that.
Yet.
Someone gets burned…
Harriett Barnett doesn’t care for dens of iniquity– or the insolent cowboy she certainly shouldn’t find attractive. But one of her students needs her help, and if she needs to corral the infamous Jensen to save him, she will. Trouble is, the town’s favorite Kittredge brother is a lot more than she bargained for. Harriett’s happy little life is orderly and neat, just how she likes it–until Jensen blows it all apart with his particular brand of addictive passion. Can a modern-day schoolmarm really tame the wildest cowboy in town? Or is Harriet headed for a terrible fall?
Millie Mosbach and her brother David escaped to the United States just before Kristallnacht, leaving their parents and little sister in Berlin. Now they are both back in their former hometown, haunted by ghosts and hoping against hope to find their family. Millie works in the office responsible for rooting out the most dedicated Nazis from publishing. Like most of their German-born American colleagues, the siblings suffer from rage at Germany and guilt at their own good fortune. Only Millie’s boss, Major Harry Sutton, seems strangely eager to be fair to the Germans.
Living and working in bombed-out Berlin, a latter day Wild West where the desperate prey on the unsuspecting; spies ply their trade; black markets thrive, and forbidden fraternization is rampant, Millie must come to terms with a past decision made in a moment of crisis, and with the enigmatic sometimes infuriating Major Sutton who is mysteriously understanding of her demons. Atmospheric and page-turning, The Living and the Lost is a story of survival, love, and forgiveness, of others and of self.
But everything comes to a screeching halt when Avery is in a car accident, leaving her immobile for weeks. After nearly losing Avery, Declan insists that he will be the one to take care of her while she recovers. However, as Declan becomes Avery’s caretaker, lines begin to blur.
Avery and Declan have been best friends since college and always had an attraction to one another, but when she ended up dating his best friend, Sam, they successfully stamped down any feelings they may have ever had for one another. Now, as Declan and Avery spend more time together, they each begin to wonder what would’ve happened if she’d dated him instead of Sam. What starts as a friend helping out another friend turns into foreplay and, before they realize it, they recognize how deeply they care for one another. But when things get serious their past threatens to destroy everything they have built.
Seems like you’ve been up to quite a lot, but I guess that is what makes life worth living. Enjoy the hot weather
It is!! Life would be a lot less interesting if things stayed the same all the time. Thank you!! I am trying too :).
Glad your found kitty is better than anticipated and I hope she finds a good home down the road. Our kids have four more weeks before school starts. I have that Helena Hunting book to read as well. I am glad you are enjoying Fairest, it is always good to get the story from the villain’s POV. Enjoy your upcoming books.
Thank you!! Enjoy your books also!!