Duke of Midnight by Elizabeth Hoyt

Title: Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane #6)

Author: Elizabeth Hoyt

Publisher: Grand Central 2013

Genre: Romance

Pages: 297

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Perpetual - NPR Romance; Unread Shelf

WHEN A MASKED MAN . . .
Twenty years ago Maximus Batten witnessed the brutal murders of his parents. Now the autocratic Duke of Wakefield, he spends his days ruling Parliament. But by night, disguised as the Ghost of St. Giles, he prowls the grim alleys of St. Giles, ever on the hunt for the murderer. One night he finds a fiery woman who meets him toe-to-toe-and won't back down . . .

MEETS HIS MATCH . . .
Artemis Greaves toils as a lady's companion, but hiding beneath the plain brown serge of her dress is the heart of a huntress. When the Ghost of St. Giles rescues her from footpads, she recognizes a kindred spirit-and is intrigued. She's even more intrigued when she realizes who exactly the notorious Ghost is by day . . .

DESIRE IGNITES A DANGEROUS PASSION
Artemis makes a bold move: she demands that Maximus use his influence to free her imprisoned brother-or she will expose him as the Ghost. But blackmailing a powerful duke isn't without risks. Now that she has the tiger by the tail, can she withstand his ire-or the temptation of his embrace?

After the incredibly boring last read, I needed something that I could rely on to bring me back. Thank goodness I had the next Maiden Lane book just sitting on my nightstand. We finally get Maximus and Artemis’s romance in this volume. I’ve been waiting for these characters to be featured and we finally get there and it’s really really good! I love that these books mix the steamy romance with a bigger mystery or adventure. We solve the mystery of Maximus’s (and Hero’s and Phoebe’s) parents murder and we see Apollo Greaves being rescued from Bedlam. I loved both main characters. I loved watching them stick to their characters while learning to love each other and finding a place in society. Maximus always came off like a statue in the previous books and I’m glad we got to see inside in this one. Such a great volume! I’d say that this is my third (a very close third) favorite book in the series so far. I still love Temperance and Lazarus and Winter and Isabel just a bit more.

Maiden Lane

• #1 Wicked Intentions

• #2 Notorious Pleasures

• #3 Scandalous Desires

• #4 Thief of Shadows

• #5 Lord of Darkness

• #6 Duke of Midnight

• #7 Darling Beast

• #8 Dearest Rogue

• #9 Sweetest Scoundrel

• #10 Duke of Sin

• #10.5 Once Upon a Moonlit Night

• #10.7 Once Upon a Christmas Eve

• #11 Duke of Pleasure

• #12 Duke of Desire

• #12.5 Once Upon a Maiden Lane

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• Temps have been hovering around 0 degrees. I’m definitely feeling the cold this week.

• Started a new giant project last night and I’m super excited about it. Hush hush for now, but I’ll share soon!

• The kids want to make Saturday morning crafting session and regular thing. Ooof! I may have to beg off a few Saturdays, but I think I can make this happen more regularly.

• Trying to hold myself back from blowing through the rest of the Scythe series by Neal Shusterman. Loved the first one!

• Dreaming of the day when I can meet my book club at a restaurant or coffeehouse. Maybe this summer…

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Widow by Fiona Barton

Title: The Widow (Kate Waters #1)

Author: Fiona Barton

Publisher: Berkley 2016

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 331

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Currently Reading - Read with Buddy

There’s a lot Jean hasn’t said over the years about the crime her husband was suspected of committing. She was too busy being the perfect wife, standing by her man while living with the accusing glares and the anonymous harassment.

Now her husband is dead, and there’s no reason to stay quiet. There are people who want to hear her story. They want to know what it was like living with that man. She can tell them that there were secrets. There always are in a marriage.

The truth—that’s all anyone wants. But the one lesson Jean has learned in the last few years is that she can make people believe anything...

Boring. That’s my one work review for this book. It was billed as a thriller, but there’s nothing thrilling about it. We are told in the first few chapters what happened and then are strung along for the rest of the book until everything is revealed. I don’t love books that have multiple unrealistic twists, but this one felt so very boring without any surprise or twist. To be fair, there is a surprise revelation towards the end of the book, but I guessed it in the first chapters. Not a real surprise. And the characters were all limp dishrags. I didn’t really care about any of them. Plus, we say practically no character growth throughout. Boring boring boring.

Kate Waters

• #1 The Widow

• #2 The Child

• #3 The Suspect

Next up on the TBR pile:

Currently #2

Reading: Scythe by Neal Shusterman. It’s been on my list and comes highly recommended by many bloggers. I’m enjoying it so far.

Watching: We’re a week into New-to-Us movie month. It’s going really well right now. We’ve watched some decent movies and a couple of good documentaries.

Listening: I’ve had A Day to Remember on repeat for about a week now. Really really digging the new songs.

Making: I finally got back into our 52 Desserts and Snacks projects with two different recipes this week.

Feeling: It’s so incredibly cold this week! The highs are all in the single digits. It’s too cold to even play outside right now.

Planning: I’ve got a huge list of Valentine’s crafts. I really need to look at the list and find a few that we can do on Saturday morning.

Loving: It’s cold and I need hot tea every night!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W22: So Much Snow and Jazz!

What We Studied

We had a big week full of snow and jazz!

LEGO creation of the Week

Literature and Poetry

We made progress with our read aloud and covered a few literature studies and Arthur read alouds.

• Just Beyond the Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-el

• A Snowflake Fell compiled by Laura Whipple

• Little Penguins New Friend by Tadgh Bentley (Arthur read aloud)

Math

We continued working through Singapore Math 2A not quite finishing Unit 2 yet.

Social Studies

We had a slow history month, but did cover the Roman Republic.

• Ancients in Their Own Words: Roman

• The Ancient Romans by Cohn

• The Ancient Romans by Shuter

• Ancient Rome by Mack

• Eyewitness Ancient Rome

• The Genius of the Romans by

• You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Roman Soldier by David Stewart

We also did a mini unit on Groundhog Day on Tuesday. Arthur loved reading the books and recording the various groundhog’s predictions.

• Groundhog Day by Julie Murray

• Grumpy Groundhog by Maureen Wright

• Groundhog’s Day Off by Robb Pearlman

• Gregory’s Shadow by Don Freeman

• Groundhog’s Runaway Shadow by David Biedrzycki

Science

Nothing formal, but we did so a decent amount of science with the Winter Unit Theme.

Art

We spent all of Saturday morning doing various winter themed crafts. We covered our big picture window with the completed projects!

Music

My favorite unit so far in homeschooling! I created a whole jazz unit for the month of February. Every week we are covering between 4 and 10 jazz artists. I have a giant stack of picture books featuring various artists and lots of music pieces notated. This is going to be a great month!

• Jazz Music History by Kenny Abdo

• Jazz by Walter Dean Myers (poems)

• Welcome to Jazz by Carolyn Sloan

• Jazz ABZ by Wynton Marsalis

• How Jelly Roll Morton Invented Jazz by Jonah Winter

• Just a Lucky So and So by Lesa Cline-Ransome

• When Louis Armstrong Taught Me Scat by Muriel Harris Weinstein

• Born to Swing by Mara Rocklife

• Jazz Age Josephine by Jonah Winter

Unit Theme

We finished penguins and our general winter theme this week. To wrap up everything, we watched two great Magic School Bus episodes about winter. Plus we did an experiment to see what liquids would freeze when places outside on the ~20 degree weather. Arthur got 4 out of the 6 predictions correct.

• My Penguin Osbert by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel

• Poles Apart by Jeanne Willis

• Polar Bear Island by Lindsay Bonilla

• Virgil and Owen Stick Together by Paulette Bogan

• Glaciers by Larry Dane Brimner

• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

• Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson

• Brownie Groundhog and the Wintry Surprise by Susan Blackaby

• The Story of Snow by Mark Cassino

• Freddie the Farting Snowman by Jane Bexley

• Lucy Tries Short Track by Lisa Bowes

• The Wildlife Winter Games by Richard Turner

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Winter Waits by Lynn Plourde

• Tracks in the Snow by Wong Herbert Yee

• First Snow by Bomi Park

• Crash, Splash, and Moo by Bob Shea

• A Day So Gray by Marie Lamba

• The Snow Day by Komako Sakai

• Once Upon a Winter Day by Liza Woodruff

• A Winter Walk by Lynne Barasch

• One Mitten by Kristine O’Connell George

• Whale Snow by Debby Dahl Edwardson

• Snowy Farm by Calvin Shaw

• Penguin and Moose by Hannah C Hall

• White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin Tressalt

• When the Snow is Deeper Than My Books are Tall by Jean Reidy

• My Footprints by Bao Phi

• Winter is the Warmest Season by Lauren Stringer

• Kate Mim-Mim: Little Kate Riding Hood

• How to Build a Snow Bear by Eric Pinder

• Chapter Two is Missing by Josh Lieb

Highs

• Saturday craft morning was a great success! It was a bit of work on my part, but pulling supplies and ideas earlier in the week made it less stressful than I anticipated. I’m thinking of making this a weekly or biweekly event.

• Even though we didn’t do any field trips, we did manage to make it to the library. Love that place so much!

Lows

• We were going to head to the zoo on Thursday or Friday, but snow and a drop in temperatures squashed that plan.

• We had a bit of a regression with screen time this week. We need to find a better system…

Next Week

We should finish our read aloud Wednesday or Thursday and have another lined up. We’re hoping to cover the rest of Unit 2 and Unit 3 for math. Continuing with our jazz unit through the 1930s and 1940s. And our theme is split between Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Dashboard Confessional "Heart Beat Here"

For the first two months of the year, I decided to do Emo Winter! I’m been really loving The Emo Project channel on Sirius XM Radio. I picked all my selections directly from the channel.

I’ve always liked Dashboard Confessional, and this song is continuing the trend. The Emo Project has been featuring this one pretty heavily for the last few weeks.

Life Right Now #2

As I look outside my window: It’s lightly snowing (again). Guess I might need to shovel the driveway if I want to go to the library this afternoon.

Right now I am: In a lull between meal prepping and brunch prepping.

Thinking and pondering: Should we do color for a kitchen backsplash? Dreaming of our kitchen renovation in 3-4 years.

On my bedside table: Scythe by Neal Shusterman; The Warmth of other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

On my tv this week: We’re one week into New-To-Us Movie Month and we have watched some interesting things. Last night was The Boy Band Con, fascinating documetnary.

Listening to: A lot of rock featuring Ice Nine Kills, A Day to Remember, Asking Alexandria, 10 Years, and AFI.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Cajun Stuffed Chicken

• Tuesday - Ham and Potato Soup

• Wednesday - Salsa Chicken

• Thursday - Leftovers

• Friday - Breakfast for Dinner

• Saturday - Chili

• Sunday - Buffalo Chicken Dip

On my to do list: All the usuals, plus I need to make a few appointments this week and work on podcast prep.

Happening this week: Hopefully we can get to the library on Thursday or Friday. I was hoping to go to the zoo, but the highs are going to be in single digits, so maybe not.

What I am creating: Working very slowly on my October Memory Planner pages. I might be able to finish today. And powering through our 52 Desserts and Snacks food project. I made two recipes this week to catch up.

My simple pleasures: Berry smoothies, a good soothing historical romance, watching the slow fall (so pretty!), requests for jazz dance parties.

Looking around the house: Arthur has created an entire Valentine’s Day shop in my living. Points for creativity, but please clean it up now…

From the camera: Very creepy smiles, but fun was had during Saturday morning’s craft time.

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

Title: The Once and Future Witches

Author: Alix E. Harrow

Publisher: Redhook 2020

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 529

Rating: /5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR; Currently Reading - Kept Me Turning Pages After Midnight

In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box.

But when the Eastwood sisters―James Juniper, Agnes Amaranth, and Beatrice Belladonna―join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote―and perhaps not even to live―the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.

There's no such thing as witches. But there will be.

I’ve been waiting on this one since i read The Ten Thousand Doors of January and it was definitely worth it. I immediately fell into the story of the Eastwood sisters. I loved that it wasn’t simply a story of bringing back witchcraft, but that we get a story of bringing three sisters back to each other. Agnes was my favorite sister, but all have some great moments. The first 60 pages are a bit slow, but once we really get into the story, I couldn’t wait to figure out the mysteries of the Lost Way of Avalon and Gideon Hill. Seriously, every time he appeared, I shuddered. So incredibly creep! And I loved his dog. Once the tower gets called back, the story kicks into high gear and I had trouble putting it down. Lots of fun.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Maybe Some Videos

Not so sure about this one. I’ve never been a huge fan of the King Kong movies.

Oh goodness! Yes please!

Very very cool, but also very scary!

These videos are fascinating to watch!

J and I laughed too hard over this one.

Underland by Robert Macfarlane

Title: Underland: A Deep time Journey

Author: Robert Macfarlane

Publisher: W.W. Norton 2020

Genre: Nonfiction

Pages: 496

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Winter TBR

In Underland, Robert Macfarlane delivers an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geologic time―from prehistoric art in Norwegian sea caves, to the blue depths of the Greenland ice cap, to a deep-sunk "hiding place" where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to come―Underland takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both place and mind.

I heard about this one on What Should I Read Next and decided I needed to read a book about travels under the ground. I haven’t read any other Robert Macfarlane books, but after reading this one, I think I need to add him to my incredibly long TBR. Macfarlane has this lyrical style that straddles the line between nonfiction and a novel. I loved it! Each chapter intertwines Macfarlane’s actual explorations all over the world, history and science about the Earth, and meditations on life. Like any collection, there were some chapters that I liked more than others, but taken all together, this is an amazing variety of explorations under the world. My absolute favorite chapter detailed Macfarlane’s explorations in the Parisian underground. I even got claustrophobic while reading some of the passages. It was intense! I’ve been raving about this one so much that I might have convinced J to read this soon.

Next up on the TBR pile:

February 2021 Life Goals

Let’s check in on January’s goals and my progress.

• Read 15 Books ✓

• Plan Out Our 52 Desserts and Snacks for January, February, and March ✓

• Walk at Least 20 Miles on the Treadmill - Fail. I only did 15.91 miles on the treadmill.

• Do a Goodwill Donation Run - Fail, although I have started two bags.

• Put Together Drawers for Boys - Fail.

• Prep for February Movie Month ✓ - I have a short list of about 90 movies to choose from.

• Make Eye Appointments - Fail.

• Make Dentist Appointments - Fail.

• Make Driver’s License Appointment - Fail.

February Goals:

• Read 15 books, At Least 5 Unread Shelf Reads

• Layout Podcast Episodes - A project J and I are working on for March or April. More info to come.

• Make 4 52 Desert Recipes - I got a big behind in January. Hoping to catch up.

• Walk at Least 20 Miles on the Treadmill - I need to be a bit more intentional about this one.

• Put Together Drawers for Boys

• Make Eye Appointments - Carryover goal

• Make Dentist Appointments - Carryover goal

• Make Driver’s License Appointment - Carryover

• Make a Spring Wish List - I’m planning on taking a bit of money (not much, but a big) of my paycheck for the last quarter to update my wardrobe a little bit. Not super exciting, but things like underwear, gym shoes, and lounge pants to replace my worn out things.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W21: So Much Snow!

What We Studied

We started our week with almost 14 inches of snow in about 24 hours! Oh goodness. The boys have really gotten into playing in the snow, but our previous snowfall had long since melted. We were super excited to watch the snow fall all day and night on Monday so we could play in the snow for the rest of the week. I’ve never been so glad to not have to leave the house for 4 days or so as we dug out.

Literature and Poetry

We did a ton of picture book studies, read alouds, and independent reading this week! We’re really leaning into being literature-based homeschoolers. Oh so good! We finished our Matilda read aloud and started our Just Beyond the Very Very Far North read aloud. On Friday night, we watched the Danny DeVito/Mara Wilson movie version of Matilda. Both boys really loved watching the movie. We even had a little discussion about the changes the movie made to the story. We all agreed that it’s still a really good movie. We also celebrated our 100th Day of School with some books and a Lego build.

• Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Just Beyond the Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-el

• Blizzard by John Rocco

• The Hat by Jan Brett

• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

• Ready, Set, 100th Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

• Rocket’s 100th Day of School by Tad Hills

• Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

• Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel by Adam Rubin

• When the Sun Shines on Antarctica by Irene Latham (poems)

• Who Ate My Book by Tina Kugler (Arthur read)

• Rocket Brave by Tad Hills (Arthur read)

• Peanut Butter’s First Day of School by Terry Border (Arthur read)

Math

We officially started Singapore Math 2A Common Core Edition this week. It’s definitely a big review for Arthur, but it’s great to get some extra practice before we tackle the next big milestone.

• Peg + Cat: The Penguin Problem by Jennifer Oxley

• Give Me Half by Stuart J. Murphy

Monday Night

Social Studies

We got back into ancient world history this week and covered two chapters and a continent study. We covered Mesoamerica (huge hit with Arthur) and the Kushites and Aksumites. Beyond the history, we covered North America for our continent study. That leaves just Australia for the continents.

• The Ancient Maya by Jackie Maloy

• Eyewitness: Aztec, Inca, and Maya

• National Geographic Investigates Ancient Maya by Nathaniel Harris

• Ancient Maya by Sue Bradford Edwards

• Ancient Maya by Barbara A. Somervill

• African Beginnings by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson

• National Geographic Investigates Ancient Africa by Victoria Sherrow

• Arts of Ancient Nubia by Denise M. Doxey

• North America by Libby Koponen

• North America by Mary Lindeen

Science

Part of our Unit Theme This Week

Art

Nothing Formal This Week

Music

Our composer this week was Scott Joplin. Arthur was amazed at how many of his compositions that he had heard in cartoons and movies. Definitely one of those composers that we don’t know the name but know the music. By the end of the week, I made a big change to our music curriculum. Instead of doing week-long composers for February, I’m creating an almost month-long unit on Jazz for February! Joplin was a great starting point to head into next month’s lessons.

• Scott Joplin by Russell Roberts

Unit Theme

We covered Penguins this week. Arthur definitely gets into animal science and this was perfect.

• A Rookery of Penguins and Other Bird Groups by Jilly Hunt

• Penguin Day by Nic Bishop

• A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis

• A Small Blue Whale by Beth Ferry

• If You were a Penguin by Wendell and Florence Minor

• Little Penguin Stays Awake by Tadgh Bentley

• The Frozen March of Emperor Penguins by Beth Bence Reinke

• I am Pangoo the Penguin by Satome Ichikawa

• Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant

• Penguinaut by Marcie Colleen

• Five Flying Penguins by Barbara Barbieri McGrath

• Penguins Don’t Wear Sweaters by Marikka Tamura

• Pip the Little Penguin by Roger Priddy

• Chilly Da Vinci by J. Rutland

Misc. - Random picture books read

• Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes

• Bedtime for Yeti by Vin Vogel

• The Thing About Yetis by Vin Vogel

• Now What? by Robie H. Harris

• Waiting for Winter by Sebastian Mechenmoser

• Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming

• Max and Marla by Alexandra Boiger

• Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows

• Baby Bear’s Not Hibernating by Lynn Plourde

• Sizing Up Winter by Lizann Flatt

• The Most Perfect Snowman by Chris Britt

• Polar Opposites by Erik Brooks

• Two Wool Gloves by Bo Jin

• Pip and Squeak by Ian Schoenherr

• Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker

• Snow by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace

• Best in Snow by April Pulley Sayre

• Sam the Snowman by Susan Winget

• Where's Walrus? And Penguin? by Stephen Savage

• Dear Yeti by James Kwan

• A Really Good Snowman by Daniel J. Mahoney

• The Wish Tree by Kyo Maclear

Highs

• The snowfall was a great event for the week. The boys have been outside playing every day. Glad to be able to get some fresh air this week.

• I’ve been loving all the winter themed picture books I got from the library.

• Speaking of, really loving that our library is open right now. The boys and I did our usual visit on Friday get our multiple bags of books.

Lows

• We didn’t finish our Penguin Unit by the weekend. I don’t want to just scrap up, so I had to rework this coming week to finish penguins on Monday.

• Cooking just didn’t really happen this week and we didn’t get to the recipes I wanted to make with Arthur.

Next Week

We’re going to finish up our Penguin unit and finish off our big overall winter theme with Ice and Snow for our unit theme. I have a mini lesson for Groundhog Day incorporating some picture books, geography, and weather science. We are also going to start our 3 week Jazz Unit for music. I’m really looking forward to this one! We’ll continue our usual read alouds and pictures for literature and continue with Duane’s adventures in Just Beyond the Very Very Far North. For social studies, we are starting a 2-3 week unit on Rome. So many good things coming up in February!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - The Used "Paradise Lost"

For the first two months of the year, I decided to do Emo Winter! I’m been really loving The Emo Project channel on Sirius XM Radio. I picked all my selections directly from the channel.

How did I miss this song? Loving it!