White Lie Christmas by Karla Doyle

Title: White Lie Christmas (Colorado Christmas #2; Hope Harbor)

Author: Karla Doyle

Publisher: Karla Doyle 2022

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 74

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 5

When her friends choose skiing in Colorado for their annual girls’ holiday trip, Krista has to think on her feet to avoid setting foot on the mountaintop. What can a girl who’s afraid of heights do to ensure she stays put in the lodge? Fake a broken leg, of course. There’s plenty to do inside—such as making some very merry memories with the hot guy at the bar. When one night stretches into every night, their fling feels like it could be the start of something bigger than the Rocky Mountains, except Hayden is a ski instructor, and Krista has been telling a white lie this Christmas…

This read a bit more like a Penthouse letter than a romantic holiday story. The problem is that the timeline is so short that we rush into sex and ultimately an engagement!?!?!?!?! all in the space of three days. We don’t get to learn enough about the main characters. Oh well, it was a decently fun story.

Colorado Christmas

• #1 Roman Holiday by Kylie Marcus

• #2 White Lie Christmas by Karla Doyle

• #3 Mountain Lane by Andie Fenichal

• #4 Gingerbread House of Lies by Shyla Colt

• #5 Snow Candy Christmas by Silke Campion

• #6 Humbug Hang Up by Layne Daniels

Next up on the TBR pile:

Currently #23

Reading: I’m deep into Holiday Romances. I always love to end my year with some light-hearted holiday themed romances.

Watching: J and I have been watching Obliterated and it’s a delightful action adventure. It’s full of violence and nudity, but is such a delight.

Listening: We’ve been sprinkling in holiday music during out car time. I need to find a new-to-me album for our travel to Indiana.

Making: Molasses cookies are on the recipe list for this week. J has requested that I don’t take them all to Indiana with me, but make sure to leave a container here for him.

Feeling: It’s been very cold and windy lately which has added to my achy body feelings. Hopefully I can get warm soon.

Planning: I’m starting my travel packing list. I always feel better with a list.

Loving: To help me get warm, I’ve been enjoying raspberry hot chocolate (made with almond milk of course) during our nightly television.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Gray Hair Don't Care by Karen Booth

Title: Gray Hair Don’t Care (Never Too Late #1)

Author: Karen Booth

Publisher: Karen Booth 2021

Genre: Romance

Pages: 276

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Rating: 5

Everything went wrong. And then she went gray.

At 47, newly divorced makeup artist Lela Bennett is dreading her next steps. Dating. Meeting people. Not letting herself go. But then she runs into Donovan James and tries something different—sleeping with her sexy crush from college. Unfortunately, in a post-orgasm stupor, Lela confesses she was in love with Donovan all those years ago. He responds by leaving while she sleeps. The next morning, her gray hairs are practically taunting her. She knows she has to get it together. Forget men. Embrace her age. Own her gray.

Donovan James is a marketing genius, but his ex-wives will tell you—nothing freaks him out like feelings. Three years after his one-night stand with Lela, he’s focused on his daughter’s lifestyle company, but unprepared to meet the face of their new beauty brand. It’s Lela. With stunning silver locks and new confidence, she’s no longer swayed by his charms. When business starts booming, the universe seems intent on throwing them together time and again. And suddenly, two people convinced that romance was behind them are wondering if love could be what’s next.

I picked this one up as a possibility for Dirty Book Month. And while this book is not going to work for that theme, I still really enjoyed this one featuring an older protagonist and a great relationship. Lela is a great FMC who has dealt with a lot of shit in her life and finds her way. Donovan is a great match for Lela in her new life. I especially loved seeing Lela interact with all her friends and Donovan’s daughter. My biggest complaint was that there weren’t enough steamy scenes. I wanted to see more of Lela and Donovan together. Still, this was a good older protagonist romance.

Never Too Late

• #1 Gray Hair Don’t Care

• #2 Brooklyn Monroe Wants It All

• #3 It’s a Widow Thing

Next up on the TBR pile:

Love in a Blizzard by Britney M. Mills

Title: Love in a Blizzard (Christmas at Goldwater Creek #1)

Author: Britney M. Mills

Publisher: Crystal Canyon Press

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 168

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 2

His heart is closed off, her life is mapped out, and the snowstorm that forces them off course.

Jobless and heartbroken, Lauren Burke returns home to Coldwater Creek hoping to find comfort. On her way home, a blizzard hits, sending her car into a fence and her into the arms of her longtime teenage crush, Walker McBride.

After being dumped, ex-bull rider Walker McBride throws himself into restoring an old lodge in his small hometown of Coldwater Creek. With the grand opening only weeks away, he has no time to rescue damsels in distress, or for that matter, love. But when Lauren shows up, the loneliness he’s been ignoring quickly bubbles to the surface.

Now snowed in, they’re forced to confront their past.

Two hearts.

One snowstorm.

And the chance to find love.

Overall, a cute little Christmas romance novella. So-and-so’s little sister/brother trope is not a favorite of mine, but this one didn’t seem too forced or cutesy. I really hate it when all parties make a huge deal out of the circumstances. This story mostly focused on their current situation and looking to the future. My biggest complaint was the odd references to Christianity throughout the novella. It felt weirdly out of place and forced. And clearly, a spice rating of 2 is not going to be an absolute favorite of mine.

Christmas at Coldwater Creek

• #1 Love in a Blizzard

• #2 Love in the Lights

• #3 Love in a Snapshot

• #4 Love in the Details

• #5 Love a Contract

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Christmas Fix by Lucy Score

Title: The Christmas Fix (Fixer #2)

Author: Lucy Score

Publisher: Bloom Books 2017

Genre: Romance

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Rating: 5

She'll save Christmas just to spite him…

There's only one thing standing in the way of Cat King saving Merry, Connecticut's Christmas festival: Grumpy town manager Noah Yates.

Single dad Noah takes his responsibilities seriously. When a late season hurricane turns his town into a disaster, he's left scrambling to pick up the pieces of the town he loves.

At least, until home renovation expert and reality TV star Catalina King arrives with a camera crew and a budget big enough to put the town back together again. But Noah doesn't want a celebrity diva capitalizing on their tragedy or filling his young daughter's head with visions of glitz and glam.

Blonde bombshell Cat is used to being underestimated, but Noah has an uncanny knack for getting under her skin. They can't be in a room together without rubbing each other the wrong way…except that time in the dark alley where the rubbing was just right. Can these enemies work together to pull off a Christmas miracle or will their fighting leave them both on the naughty list?

What do we get if we mix a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, HGTV, and a lot of steamy scenes? A rocking good time! I really really loved this one for my holiday reading. Cat is a take-no-nonsense driven career woman who butts up against a stick-in-the-mud small town leader. I loved seeing Noah and Cat go from hating each other’s guts to making out everywhere in the small town of Merry. A great romance full of amazing banter with a heartwarming story running underneath. I might just have to go and read the first one in this duology. Love the fun writing and steamy scenes!

Fixer

• #1 Mr. Fixer Upper

• #2 The Christmas Fix

Next up on the TBR pile:

Bad Bachelor by Stefanie London

Title: Bad Bachelor (Bad Bachelors #1)

Author: Stefanie London

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca 2018

Genre: Romance

Pages: 384

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter : 5

He says…

If one more person mentions Bad Bachelors to me, someone's gonna get hurt. Who thought this app would be a good idea? Like dating isn't hard enough without being critiqued for every little misstep. My name is Reed McMahon and I'm supposedly a PR whiz and "image fixer," but now I need some help cleaning up my own image.

She says…

When Reed strolls into my workplace offering to help save the struggling library, I'm not buying his story. I'm Darcy Greer, a no-nonsense Brooklynite who knows Reed is exactly the kind of guy to be avoided. I've seen the app, and Bad Bachelor #1 has no place in my life. However, the library doesneed his help, and this guy needs to make some serious amends, so who am I to stop him? If only he didn't work so hard to find redemption…

A probably ultimately forgetful romance, but I definitely enjoyed reading it. Enemies to lovers is my top favorite romance trope and this book really leaned into that. We also get a bit of opposites attract and forced proximity throughout the book. Darcy and Reed are a fun couple to watch argue and make up. The sexy scenes are appropriately steamy while seeming very natural to their relationship. This one was a good read for the week, but sadly, not a good choice for February’s Dirty Book Club Month selection.

Bad Bachelors

• #1 Bad Bachelor

• #2 Bad Reputation

• #3 Bad Influence

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

Title: A Holiday by Gaslight

Author: Mimi Matthews

Publisher: Perfectly Proper Press 2018

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 175

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Spice Meter: 1

A Courtship of Convenience

Sophie Appersett is quite willing to marry outside of her class to ensure the survival of her family. But the darkly handsome Mr. Edward Sharpe is no run-of-the-mill London merchant. He's grim and silent. A man of little emotion--or perhaps no emotion at all. After two months of courtship, she's ready to put an end to things.

A Last Chance for Love

But severing ties with her taciturn suitor isn't as straightforward as Sophie envisioned. Her parents are outraged. And then there's Charles Darwin, Prince Albert, and that dratted gaslight. What's a girl to do except invite Mr. Sharpe to Appersett House for Christmas and give him one last chance to win her? Only this time there'll be no false formality. This time they'll get to know each other for who they really are.

Cute little Christmas romance story. I enjoyed the setting and a slightly different time than the usual Regency romances I read. But mostly, I really enjoyed the communication between Ned and Sophie. It’s refreshing to see two main characters talk to each other instead of relying on miscommunication.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

• So so busy… I feel like we haven’t been home for school very much this week.

• The new season of Slow Horses is absolutely amazing! It’s so hard to wait each week for the next episode.

• I really need to drop off two bags of library books today. We need to slowly turn all our library books back in before we leave for Indiana.

• Couldn’t resist the holiday treats at Aldis this week. Oh so good.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Title: Whalefall

Author: Daniel Kraus

Publisher: MTV Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 327

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool’s errand—to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it’s a long shot, but Jay feels it’s the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad’s death by suicide the previous year.

The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid’s tentacles and drawn into the whale’s mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs. He quickly realizes he has only one hour before his oxygen tanks run out—one hour to defeat his demons and escape the belly of a whale.

Another mediocre read for me this week. I picked this up on th suggestion of a couple of lists with new horror style books for 2023. Ultimately, I wasn’t a huge fan. This read more like a thriller with long chapters of flashbacks and introspection. We didn’t get a sense of building dread that I really love in my horror novels. Instead, the whale swallows Jay pretty quickly and then we slowly have to follow his stream of consciousness and struggle to survive. There are a few parts that turned extremely gory, like even I was a bit grossed out. Overall, I just don’t think I really connected to this story and ended up with a “Meh” reaction at the end.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar

Title: Counting the Cost

Author: Jill Duggar

Publisher: Gallery Books 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 288

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Jill and Derick knew a normal life wasn’t possible for them. As a star on the popular TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Jill grew up in front of viewers who were fascinated by her family’s way of life. She was the responsible, second daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle’s nineteen kids; always with a baby on her hip and happy to wear the modest ankle-length dresses with throat-high necklines. She didn’t protest the strict model of patriarchy that her family followed, which declares that men are superior, that women are expected to be wives and mothers and are discouraged from attaining a higher education, and that parental authority over their children continues well into adulthood, even once they are married.

But as Jill got older, married Derick, and they embarked on their own lives, the red flags became too obvious to ignore.

For as long as they could, Jill and Derick tried to be obedient family members—they weren’t willing to rock the boat. But now they’re raising a family of their own, and they’re done with the secrets. Thanks to time, tears, therapy, and blessings from God, they have the strength to share their journey. Theirs is a remarkable story of the power of the truth and is a moving example of how to find healing through honesty.

I succumbed to publishing peer pressure and grabbed this one from the library shelves. I ended up pretty disappointed in this read, but wasn’t sure exactly why. Of course, I don’t believe in an higher power, but I don’t think that was my problem. The more I examined my thoughts, I can down to a few aspects that I did not like. The biggest of these is that it feels like Jill has not done enough reflection to see her upbringing clearly. She maintains that her childhood was overall very good. It’s only in the last sections of the book that she questions the authority model for her entire family. But the examination is cursory. I’m not asking her to turn her back on her entire family or faith, but clearly there were a lot of concerning situations and models that she just glosses over. I don’t need details of the abuse she suffered, but she seems to dismiss it throughout most of the book and only brings it up when discussing the financial compensation. Perhaps this book would have more reflection and nuance if it had been written five years in the future. It seems that she is too close to the situation to see clearly right now.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W14-15: Thanksgiving Break was Needed

The Fox stories

More Fox books

What We Studied

Two weeks of activities and school. Overall, I’m amazed at how much school we actually accomplished. Only a few more weeks until Christmas break. Getting those last lessons.

Chemistry Class

A’s ELA

Fairy Tale books

Literature and Poetry

Arthur started and finished his next read aloud. He enjoyed it, but I did forget about how many weird God references are in that book. I really gloss over those things. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills and starting our writing journey. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

• Poetry for Young People: American Poetry

• Reading Explorer: Intro

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Quentin got back into the Blossom & Root curriculum with two tales and their variations. I’m really enjoying the format for this year. He also worked on some basic grammar.

• Sing a Song of Seasons

• Pumpkin Butterfly: Poems from the Other Side of Nature by Heidi Mordhorst

• Fairy Tales Collection

• The Other Side of the Story

• Little Red Riding Hood by Paul Galdone

• Lon Po Po by Ed Young

• Red by Jed Alexander

• Little Red Ruthie by Gloria Koster

• Little Red Riding Sheep by Linda Ravin Lodding

• The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena Vermette

• The Wolf's Story by Toby Forward

• Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion by Alec T. Smith

• Ninja Red Riding Hood by Corey Rosen Schwartz

• Werewolf? There Wolf! by Kyle Sullivan

• Tango Red Riding Hood by Rachel S. Hobbs

• Little Red Riding Hood and the Misread Wolf by Troy Wilson

• Little Red Riding Hood and the Dragon by Ying Chang Compestine

• Very Little Red Riding Hood by Heapy & Heap

• The Other Side of the Story: Little Red Riding Hood

• Yummy: Eight Favorite Fairy Tales by Lucy Cousins

• Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood by Mike Artell

• Yummy by Lucy Cousins

• Henny Penny by Paul Galdone

• The Sky is Falling by Mark Teague

• Henny Penny by Vivian French

• The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night by Peter Spier

• Flossie and the Fox by Patricia McKissack

• Basho and the River Stones by Tim J Myers

• Fox: A Circle of Life Story by Isabel Thomas

• Henny, Penny, Lenny, Denny, and Mike by Cynthia Rylant

• The Great Gran Plan by Elli Woollard

• Watch Out for Wolf! by Anica Mrose Rissi

• Redlocks and the Three Bears by Claudia Rueda

• Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens

• The Grasshopper and the Ants by Jerry Pinkney

• The Little Red Hen by Jerry Pinkney

• The Little Red Fort by Brenda Maier

• The Grasshopper's Song by Nikki Giovanni and Chris Raschka

• The Little Red Hen by Margot Zemach

• Rapunzel by Barbara Rogasky

• Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky

• Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox

• Petrosinella: A Neapolitan Rapunzel by Diane Stanley

• Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel by Patricia Storace

• Rapunzel by Bethan Woollvin

• Really Rapunzel Needed a Haircut by Jessica Gunderson

• Rapunzel Let Down Your Zip Wire by Jasmine Brooke

Math

Arthur continued to dive into Singapore 5A. We are definitely going to slow down our math lessons a bit to make sure that Arthur achieves mastery. We’ve moved onto new skills dealing with multiplying and dividing fractions. Time for me to relearn some math! We also continued our next logic book.

• Singapore Common Core 5A

• Orbiting with Logic

Quentin’s all about review right now. I don’t anticipate starting Singapore 2A until January. We also continued our logic book.

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

Social Studies

Arthur covered more about immigration, specifically Japanese immigration. We also covered the inventions and presidents of the late 1800s. We did a specific lesson on the Statue of Liberty.

• DK American History

• We were There Too! Young People in US History

• Words that Build a Nation

• Heart and Soul

• Nat Geo Our Country’s Presidents

• An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

• A Different Mirror for Young People

• This is Our Land: A History of American Immigration

• Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers

• Let Liberty Rise! How America's Schoolchildren Helped Save the Statue of Liberty by Chana Stiefel

• Liberty Arrives! How America's Grandest Statue Found Her Home by Robert Byrd

Quentin learned about the ancient Meosamerican cultures including the Maya.

• History Quest Early Times

• DK When on Earth?

• Human Wold

• DK History

• DK Timelines of Everything

• DK A Child Through Time

• A History of Western Art

• DK Science Year by Year

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• The Ancient World: Ancient Maya by Barbara A. Somervill

• The Ancient Maya by Jackie Maloy

• The Genius of the Maya by Izzi Howell

• The Mystery of the Maya: Uncovering the Lost City of Palenque by Peter Lourie

A’s ELA, Math, and History

Q’s ELA and Math

Art and Music

Science

Arthur started covering the first couple of elements on the Periodic Table. We’ll be doing this for the next couple of weeks for Chemistry. We also caught back up with our Story of Science chapters.

• RSO Chemistry

• DK Super Simple Chemistry

• Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim

• DK The Elements

Quentin moved to invertebrates and covered fish and amphibians.

• RSO Life

• DK Oversimple Biology

• Fish by Isabel Martin

• DK Eyewitness Fish

• Fish by Christine Taylor-Butler

• Do You Know About Amphibians by Buffy Silverman

• Amphibians by Christine Taylor-Butler

Q’s History

Q’s Work and Harvest Books

A’s History, Science, ELA, and Math

STEAM Coop

Arthur continued his exploration of board games. By the end of the six weeks, the kids will have created their own board games. We started our board game construction. Quentin’s class finished their exploration of Native Americans.

A’s Monet Mash-up Art

A’s ELA and Math

Q’s The Tower Books

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We got back into it covering three artists (Claude Monet, Mary Cassatt, and Vincent Van Gogh) and three composers (Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, and Brahms). I’m working these subjects in as we can, but proud of our progress so far. They are always the first on the chopping block if we run out of time during the week.

• DK Music and How it Works

• DK The Arts

• Modern Art Adventures by Maja Pitamic and Jill Laidlaw

• 13 American Artists Children Should Know

• A Child's Introduction to Art

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

• Iconic Composers by Nicholas Csicsko & Emi Ferguson

• Johann Sebastian Bach by Mike Venezia

• The Piano by Marika Maijala and Juha Virta

• Becoming Bach by Tom Leonard

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Monet Paints a Day by Julie Danneberg

• Claude Monet by Mike Venezia

• Monet's Cat by Lily Murray & Becky Cameron

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

• Impressionism: 13 Artists Children Should Know

• Johannes Brahms by Mike Venezia

• Vincent Van Gogh by Mike Venezia

• The Yellow House by Susan Goldman Rubin

• Vincent’s Colors by The Metropolitan Museum of Art

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström

• Katie's Starry Night

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Mike Venezia

• Mozart: Great Lives in Graphics

• Play, Mozart, Play by Peter Sis

• Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist Painter by Barbara Herkert

• Mary Cassatt by Mike Venezia

• Women in Art by Rachel Ignotofsky

Q’s Science

Doing free art

Q’s version of Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Field Trip

Not a field trip, we did have a fun playdate at Backyard Playworld with some friends.

Art with pandas

Art and Music

High

• We took a cold, but lovely walk at Heron Haven on Black Friday. It was the perfect choice for the day after Thanksgiving. Bonus, there was no one else there.

Low

• We actually didn’t really have a low point this two weeks. Taking a few days off for the Thanksgiving break really helped.

More art and music

ELA and Math

Next Week

• Starting a new read aloud

• Covering more classic tales

• Learning about area and perimeter for math (A)

• Lots of math review (Q)

• Covering specific elements on the Periodic table

• Engaging in a few fun field trips

Open play at Bounce U

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Beartooth "Might Love Myself"

Another good one from Beartooth!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #35

As I look outside my window: It’s pretty gray and dreary today. And I think the temps are going to hover in the 30s. It’s definitely an inside day.

Right now I am: Getting ready to dive into a new book. I love it when I finish a book at bedtime. It’s lovely to start the morning with a new book.

On my bedside table: All those holiday romances… I’ve got a physical stack and a Kindle stack.

On my tv this week: We wrapped up our first Nic Cage Quarterly with 18 movies watched! With the start of December, we started with the new Doctor Who specials and S3 of Slow Horses.

Listening to: All the usual podcasts. Nothing too new or exciting.

On the menu for this week:

• Monday - Me out

• Tuesday - BBQ Cheddar Meatloaf

• Wednesday - Our

• Thursday - Firecracker Chicken

• Friday - Black Bean Soup and Ranch Chicken Tacos

• Saturday - Me Out

• Sunday - Chicken n Dumplings

On my to do list: A lot of prep work for spring semester of coop; Christmas prep; random cleaning projects…

Happening this week:

• Monday - Coffee with potential coop families; Chemistry Class; Book Club

• Tuesday - State Capitol Tour; Lost in Fun

• Wednesday - Medieval Putt; Santa Rock n Lights

• Thursday - Coop; Lit Society

• Friday - Rudolph Performance; Fontenelle Forest Hike

• Saturday - Book and Bottle Exchange for book club

• Sunday - Home Day

What I am creating: Working on November’s Memory Planner pages. I also want to gather materials for this year’s December Daily album.

My simple pleasures: Hot chocolate (without cow’s milk!); breezy and fun books

Looking around the house: We need to do a quick pick-up before coop book club this afternoon. And I would really like to do a deep clean of the kitchen, but that’s probably not going to happen today.

From the camera: Q insisted on doing art and music with his pandas.

Snowed In for Christmas by Jaqueline Snowe

Title: Snowed in for Christmas

Author: Jaqueline Snowe

Publisher: Forever 2023

Genre: Holiday Romance

Pages: 336

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Romanceopoly - The Gym (cheating a bit as I don’t have long romance books, but the MMC is a football coach, so I’m counting it)

Spice Rating: 5

Sorority mom Becca Fairfield is used to guys not taking her seriously. She’s too blond, too quirky, or Just. Too. Much.So she’s ditched dating to focus on her job and a house filled with drama and plenty of tea. Now with the holidays and a major blizzard on her doorstep, Becca has everything she needs to survive the next two weeks on her own. Hot cocoa, plenty of books . . . and the memory of a steamy kiss with a certain sexy, grumposaurus next-door neighbor to keep her warm.

Only Becca’s seriously underestimated this Snowpocalypse. So when the power goes out and Harrison Cooper—football coach, master crank, and the guy who acted mega-awkward after said steamy kiss—offers her shelter, it only makes sense to accept. They’ll just be Blizzard Buddies. Hang out, stay safe, and maybe indulge in a little R-rated cuddling. Becca knows that Harrison isn’t the dating kind, and what happens during the storm lasts only as long as the storm. But are they keeping warm . . . or playing with fire?

Very sweet and a little spicy Christmas romance. I usually hate the miscommunication trope, but this one did not bother me as much. It wasn’t so much miscommunication as no communication. But the main characters fairly quickly sort that out. Plus we get forced proximity and one bed! I do enjoy those tropes a lot. Overall this was a breezy and fun Christmas themed romance for my week.

Next up on the TBR pile:

December 2023 Life Goals

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

• Read 18 Books ✓

• Have a Great Thanksgiving ✓

• Finish Cleaning Out My Clothes

• Make Christmas Plans

December Goals:

• Read 18 Books

• Complete our Christmas Bucket List

• Travel to Indiana for Christmas

• Finalize Reading Retreat Plans

• Prep Blog for 2024

• Solidify Art and Geometry Plan (Coop)

• Get the Spring Semester in Order (Homeschool)

Next up on the TBR pile:

Christmas Bucket List

Another Christmas season is upon us! Time for another bucket list. Let’s see what I’m hoping to do this year:

1. Read 10 Holiday Romances

2. Coop Christmas Party!

3. Decorate the Mini Tree

4. Letter to Santa

5. Christmas Movies x3

6. Make Paper Snowflakes

7. Go See Santa at Cabela’s

8. Go See Werner Park Lights

9. Hot Chocolate Bar

10. Meet the Reindeer

11. Go for a Winter Hike

12. Puzzle Day

13. Make Gingerbread Cookies

14. Visit Zoolightful at the Zoo

15. Drive around and see the lights

16. Fantasy of Lights

17. Dinner at Coney Island and Visit to Santa Lights

18. Christmas music dance party

19. Watch The Grinch

20. Make Peppermint Bark

21. Christmas Advent Books

22. Find a New Christmas Album

23. Have a Candy Cane Hunt

24. Go Sledding

25. Send out Christmas cards

26. Try a new holiday drink

27. Make a snowglobe

28. Make Christmas cocktails

29. Create my December Daily base pages

30. Read A Christmas Carol

Next Up on the TBR Pile:

Fall Bucket List Finish

My favorite season of the year. Decent showing this year, even if I decided to slow everything down and rest this season.

1. Visit Vala’s 6x ✓

2. Celebrate Friendsgiving - Cancelled due to sickeness

3. Read 50 Books ✓

4. Complete Spooky Movie Month ✓

5. Execute a Halloween Party for Coop ✓

6. Have an Art/Craft Day

7. Three State Park Visists ✓

8. Two Zoo Visits

9. Pick Out and Carve Pumpkins ✓

10. Go Trick-or-Treating ✓

11. Jump in a Pile of Leaves

12. Go Through a Corn Maze ✓

13. Make 5 Fall Recipes

14. Make Leaf Art ✓

15. Go Pick Apples ✓

16. Go on a 3 Fall Forest Hikes ✓

17. Make 3 Pumpkin Recipes

18. Go Bowling

19. Use our GetOut Pass 2 Times - Only used it one time

20. Decorate for Fall ✓

Next up on the TBR pile:

November 2023 Wrap-up

November TBR Pile (21/27):

1. Bookworms BC: All Systems Red by Martha Wells

2. Friend BC: Underground Airlines by Ben Winters ✓

3. Nerdy Bookish Friends BC: The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers ✓

4. Kid Read Aloud: Tristan Strong Destroys the World by Kwame Mbalia ✓

5. Kid Read Aloud: The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown

6. Kid Book Club: From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks ✓

7. Romance: Brutal Prince by Sophie Lark ✓

8. Romance: A Delicate Deception by Cat Sebastian ✓

9. Romance: Secretly Yours by Tessa Bailey

10. Romance: Unfortunately Yours by Tessa Bailey

11. Romance: Love of My Lives by Yamille Saied Mendez

12. Romance: The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary ✓

13. Romance: The Dragon’s Bride by Katee Robert ✓

14. Romance: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost ✓

15. Romance: Wicked All Night by Jeaniene Frost ✓

16. Romance: Wicked Bite by Jeaniene Frost ✓

17. Romance: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley ✓

18. Horror: Find Him Where You Left Him Dead by Kristen Simmons ✓

19. Horror: The September House by Carissa Orlando ✓

20. Nonfiction: Unlikeable Female Characters by Anna Bogutskaya ✓

21. Science Fiction: Starter Villain by John Schalzi ✓

22. Science Fiction: Ark by Veronica Roth ✓

23. Science Fiction: Emergency Skin by NK Jemisin ✓

24. Science Fiction: Summer Frost by Blake Crouch ✓

25. Science Fiction: Randomize by Andy Weir ✓

26. Science Fiction: You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles ✓

27. Science Fiction: The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay ✓

1,000,000 Page Goal:

Monthly Total: 5563 pages
Pages Remaining: 281,238 pages

Current Read - Snowed in for Christmas by Jacqueline Snowe; Whalefall by Daniel Kraus

Books I Gave Up On (0)

Books Bought/Received (0)

UnRead Shelf Progress

• Starting Number: 339

• Books Read: 1

• Books Acquired: 0

• Books Unshelved: 1

• Finishing Number: 337

December TBR Pile: Not burdening myself with a TBR for this month. Just reading what I feel like.

1. Bookworms BC: None

2. Friend BC: None

3. Nerdy Bookish Friends BC: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson

4. Kid Read Aloud: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

5. Kid Read Aloud: The Wild Robot Protects by Peter Brown

6. Kid Book Club: A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

Movies Watched - November became Nic Cage November! We began a retrospective of his entire career. Definitely not going to finish this month, but we can get a start. We ended up with 17 Nicolas Cage movies and one docmentary.

• In Defense of Nicolas Cage

• Rumble Fish (side character)

• Valley Girl

• Racing with the Moon (side character)

• Birdy

• The Cotton Club (side character)

• Peggy Sue Got Married

• The Boy in Blue

• Moonstruck

• Raising Arizona - Still my favorite Nicolas Cage movie!

• Time to Kill - This is terrible. Skip it.

• Firebirds

• Wild at Heart - Reminds me why I don’t really enjoy Lynch.

• Zandalee

• Honeymoon in Vegas

• Amos & Andrew

• Deadfall

• Red Rock West

• Guarding Tess

• Solarbabies - Obviously not a Nic Cage movie. This was for family movie night. Very cheesy 80s scifi movie.

• Five Nights at Freddy’s - Kids’ pick for Thanksgiving movie night.

• Fantastic Mr. Fox

TV Shows Watched

• Loki S2

• Lower Decks S3

• Ghosts S6

• Rick & Morty S7

• Bachelor in Paradise

• Shoresy S2

• Doctor Who

Comments -

Next up on the TBR pile:

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Title: Role Playing

Author: Cathy Yardley

Publisher: Montlake 2023

Genre: Romance

Pages: 333

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Romanceopoly - Autumn

Spice Rating: 5

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal—he’ll be more social if she does the same—she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch.

Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée.

Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is a college student. Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian.

When they finally meet face to face—after a rocky, shocking start—the unlikely pair of sunshine and stormy personalities grow tentatively closer. But Maggie’s previous relationships have left her bitter, and Aiden’s got a complicated past of his own.

Everything’s easier online. Can they make it work in real life?

Another contender for Dirty Book Month. While I really enjoyed a story featuring older protagonists, I really really wanted a few more spicy scenes. Those few don’t come until about 70% of the way through the book. If I put that complaint to the side, I really loved following Maggie and Aiden as they navigate life online and in person. We get to see two people who are ostracized from being their shelves by those around them. I rooted for them to to at least be comfortable in themselves by the end of the story. The scenes with Maggie’s ex-hsuband really made me so angry. I was so glad to see Maggie continue to be her honest self. Overall, a really good contemporary romance.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Title: Starter Villain

Author: John Scalzi

Publisher: Tor Book 2023

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 264

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat.

Another utterly delightfully entertaining science fiction romp by John Scalzi. I really enjoy his light and fluffy adventure stories every once in awhile between more serious scifi picks. This one drops you, and Charlie, into an unknown world. We have to slowly navigate our way through the villains, supervillains, and common assholes. My favorite parts involved Hera and the dolphins. Seriously, they stole the entire show when they appeared on the pages. There’s not a ton of substance to this book, but it’s one hell of an entertaining ride.

Next up on the TBR pile: