Happy 4th of July! (For those of you celebrating!) I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday. The girls and I headed over this morning to a local parade – over in the town where my parents live. Very small town but cute.
This week begins some early morning rising for me. You see my oldest starts summer school tomorrow for the month of July – from 7:00am until Noon. The school where it will take place is near my work – and a distance from my home – so my boss told me I could work 7:00am-3:30 pm for the month of July. While I know I’ll love getting out of work early (I usually work 8:30am-5:00pm) the getting up at the butt crack of dawn every day is going to kill me, I just know it. My reading will suffer. I know that I’ll have to go to bed earlier and not have as much time to read in the evenings after the chicklets go to bed. Maybe I can make up for it in the afternoons? I’ll have to see how that pans out.
Diet and Exercise – I’ve been bad about updating this – I don’t think I have for a couple of weeks – sorry. I’m at a stand still at the same weight from my last weigh in – so only a total of 2.4 pounds lost. I’m happy I haven’t gained – so that’s a plus. I think I have my hubby talked into moving our treadmill into the living room. Yes it will be completely unsightly but with it currently in the garage I just never use it. It’s hotter than hell out there right now (it’s been in the 100’s this past week) and moving it inside would be a much bigger motivator for me.
So what did I read this past week?
My first book for the week was Waking Up With the Duke by Lorraine Heath. A good book and I loved the hero! You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5
Next up was Pushed to the Limit by Nico Rosso. This is book 2 in the Limit War series and it was good. I really liked the characters and the romance. You can read my review here. 3.75 out of 5
Smashed Into Pieces by Scarlet Blackwell was a book that I read for The Book Binge. I didn’t care for this book for the most part. There were a few things about it I liked but only a few. The male hero seemed like a stalker and the other male hero just wanted to be left alone and kept telling man 1 that, but did he listen? No. I have been told by Chris that there are a couple of books that she liked by Blackwell so I’ll check those out in the future and not give up on the author. You can read my review here if you’re interested. 1.5 out of 5
Next was another Book Binge book called Loving the Beast by Naima Simone. This was a erotic version of a beauty and the beast tale. While I liked the story there just wasn’t enough of it. Too much sex for me and not enough story 2 out of 5 You can read my review here if you’re interested.
My next read, another one for The Book Binge, was called Flying Blind by Deborah Cooke. If you’ve been reading the Dragonfire series by Cooke you might be interested in this one. This is a YA book that is told in 1st person POV by Zoe Sorensson, daughter of Erik, leader of the Pyr (whose book is Kiss of Fate). This is the first book in a trilogy called the Dragon Diaries and in this book Zoe is frustrated by her lack of puberty as well as her lack of dragon powers. Supposedly she is the new Wyvern of the Pyr but so far she’s not seeing anything that shows she’s this amazing dragon. It was a good story and I can’t wait to read what happens next in Zoe’s life. 4 out of 5
My next read was Sno Ho by Ethan Day. This is a novella about man, Boone, who’s visiting Colorado supposedly to have a romantic time with his boyfriend. But his boyfriend breaks up with him over the phone and he goes and gets drunk. He picks up a guy, Wade, but has no idea what happened. Turns out that it just might be the best thing that’s ever happened to him. The two spend some time together but the getting to that point is fun and funny. I really liked both Wade and Boone and enjoyed the story a lot. 4 out of 5 (I did pick up Life in Fusion with is a novel that is the continuing story of Wade and Boone but put it down after about 100 pages. It just wasn’t capturing my attention so I’ll have to come back to it at a later time.)
My last book for the week was Just Like Heaven by Julia Quinn. This is the first book in a 4 books series about the Smythe-Smith family. If you’ve read the Bridgerton series then you know that the Smythe-Smith’s are the family that put on the yearly musicale that is horrific. Honoria is one of the instrumentalists and though she loathes the fact that she has to do the musicale she loves her family so perseveres. Honoria and Marcus have known each other for 15 years and Marcus is Honoria’s brother’s best friend. They end up falling in love. This was a cute book. The romance could have been fleshed out more and yes, the characters could have been explored more fully but in the end I really liked the book. Quinn’s always sucks me in and with the emotion and the humor mixed into her stories I end up really loving her work. 4 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Smashed Into Pieces by Scarlet Blackwell
Loving the Beast by Naima Simone
Happy Reading!
Yeah, getting up that early? Ugh. Not fun. How will your daughter get home at noon?
I have not read that Scarlett Blackwell, I read some reviews that told me there was too much in it that would NOT work for me, definitely scared me off, that book, not the author necessarily. I did enjoy Sno Ho, I think have the sequel but haven't read it yet.
It's stinking hot here today, but it's been not bad. However I just try not to move much. That's an effective method to beat the heat. 🙂
Hope you have a fun 4th of July and got lots of "swag" (aka candy) at the parade. (I'm assuming they toss candy down there same as in Canada.)
Happy 4th, Tracy!
Hopefully you'll get used to the early mornings quickly.
Don't read Scarlet Blackwell's book Captive, either – that was also annoying. 🙂
Tam – My mom and dad watch the kids during the day when they're out of school so one of them will pick her up.
Definitely PASS on the Blackwell. I don't say that about too many books, leaving the decision up to the reader but no. Just, no on this one.
The heat here is awful lately – getting up into the 100's by 10am. yuk! I like your plan…no moving.
The parade we went too had lots of water shooters, which was nice, but no candy. Damn. I'll need to come up there for Canada day next year. lol
Chris – You too!
The mornings will kill me, I just know it. lol
Oh, thanks for the heads up. Writing that down for the future. lol
Hope you and your family had a wonderful 4th!
I'd forgotten about the Deborah Cooke YA. I like the Dragonfire series so I'll definitely pick this one up. 🙂
Happy Independence day!
You'll get used to your new schedule and will really enjoy the free time 🙂
Awww, I was hoping the grade for the Lorraine Heath would be higher. Ah well.
Girl on the cover of Flying Blind looks like Bella ^_^;
Overall, looks like you had another good week 🙂
I enjoyed the Quinn as well. Yes it was light and funny and could have been more, but it was enough to send me on a Quinn reading jag and I subsequently read two more of her books in quick succession!
Leslie – I liked it. I think she did a great job of mixing the younger generation of dragons in with the "old" (although I hate calling them that! lol)
Nath – New Schedule: day two – yesterday was fine…today was a huge struggle. Yuk. lol
You think she looks like Bella? Really? I don't see that for some reason. 🙂
Yeah, the Heath had good stuff – like Ainsley – but it was hard for me with the infidelity.
Marg – That happened with me when I read the first Bridgerton book. I had no intention of reading them in succession but after finishing book 1 I quickly read books 2-4. lol Glad you liked it.