Review: The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

This book has been everywhere lately and with good reason! I have been a fan of Simone St James for quite a while. I read The Broken Girls a couple of years ago and then quickly binged the rest of her books, loving each and every one!

When I saw that this book was coming out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! This is one of those authors and books that received a ton of hype and while sometimes I am weary of overly hyped books, this was one I was sure to love. All of her books have been great and I knew I had nothing to fear from this new release!

I sat down one afternoon and read it so fast that I was shocked to look up and find that it was dark outside! Not to mention I was cold and that wasn’t because it was cold in my house….this was a spine chilling book! Continue reading “Review: The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James”

Review: The Winter Companion (Parish Orphans of Devon #4) by Mimi Matthews

To say that I have been eager to read this final installment of the Parish Orphans of Devon series is a gross understatement. I absolutely loved all of Mimi Matthews books and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this one!

Of all the orphans, Neville was probably to most mysterious character for me and the one we never seemed to get to know, beyond the basic back story told by the other characters.

I was excited to see how Neville’s love story as well as his character unfolded in this book. There was so much discussion in the other books about how Neville’s accident as a child had left him ‘damaged’ and I was curious to see how that translated into a romance for him in this book. Continue reading “Review: The Winter Companion (Parish Orphans of Devon #4) by Mimi Matthews”

Review: Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden

I worked in public education for twelve years and during that time I had a close friend who was a counselor in our Guidance Office. We would have lunch together every day and talk about how we needed to write a book about public education because people would never believe the things we have to go through on a daily basis.

In fact we stated keeping a list of things that would happen in our office each year and at the end of the school year we would go back and reflect on the year of weird things we had to deal with. The list was long every single year and the incidents increasingly humorous and at the same time sad.

When I saw this book was coming out and was written by a former educator, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! Continue reading “Review: Adequate Yearly Progress by Roxanna Elden”

Take Two Review: Why Kill the Innocent (Sebastian St. Cyr #13) by C.S. Harris

When I first read this book, it was only the third book I had read in this series. I read book 1 and then book 12 before reading this one and that was it. I went into this one feeling a little lost in the series in regards to the principle characters, but tried to keep my focus on the mystery itself.

Then back in Dec, I decided to bit the bullet as it were and read the entire series again from beginning to end as it was intended and what I have discovered is this series is positively unputdownable!

While I might not love every book in the series, I have found that I now can fully appreciate the detailed nuances of the character connections, changes, and relationships much better than when I picked this one up originally! Continue reading “Take Two Review: Why Kill the Innocent (Sebastian St. Cyr #13) by C.S. Harris”

Review: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) by C.S. Lewis (Audible Edition)

Even though I was a big reader as a child, this book just never made it on my to be read list. I wasn’t into fantasy as a kid and thus this book never appealed to me. I was way more into the American Girl books than Narnia and I even went to a Catholic school…..the Narnia books are practically required reading at Catholic schools!

But for whatever reason, I just by passed this entire series until now. As an adult I have absolutely fallen in love with fantasy and magical novels and now that I have a little boy, I can’t wait to share the Narnia books with him so I decided that I needed to give them a go before he was old enough to read them on his own (he is 3 so we have a while)

I know that I started the series a little out of order with this one technically being the second book in the series, but it was the one I was most familiar with so I decided to start there. Continue reading “Review: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia #2) by C.S. Lewis (Audible Edition)”