Untouchable by Talia Hibbert

Title: Untouchable (Ravenswood #2)

Author: Talia Hibbert

Publisher: Nixon House 2018

Genre: Romance

Pages: 344

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; She Reads Romance - Forbidden Romance

Spice Meter: 5

Sleeping with the staff wasn’t part of the plan.

Sensible, capable, and ruthlessly efficient, Hannah Kabbah is the perfect nanny… until a colossal mistake destroys her career and shatters her reputation. These days, no-one in town will hire her—except Nathaniel Davis, a brooding widower with a smile like sin and two kids he can’t handle.

Prim and proper Hannah is supposed to make Nate’s life easier, but the more time he spends around his live-in nanny, the more she makes things… hard. He can’t take advantage of her vulnerable position, but he can’t deny the truth, either: with every look, every smile, every midnight meeting, Nate’s untouchable employee is stealing his heart.

The trouble is, she doesn’t want to keep it. Forbidden love isn’t high on Hannah’s to-do list, and trust isn’t one of her strengths. When dark secrets threaten to destroy their bond, Nate’s forced to start playing dirty. Because this reformed bad boy will break every rule to finally claim his woman.

I’ll admit that I was skeptical of this book going in. The nanny trope is not one that I enjoy. Usually it involved a pretty big age gap and most definitely a power imbalance. Thankfully this book does not fall into those traps. Hannah is a fun character to follow through from the first book, but it’s Nate that really pulled me into this story. I totally felt for him. The sob story with his wife, the current sob story with this mom, and the beautiful relationship with his kids coupled with the whole vibe (hello tattoos) and I was completely smitten. There were a few decisions that I wasn’t excited about, but it all ended up okay by them last page.

Ravenswood

Next up on the TBR pile:

Odds and Ends

Here's my randomness for the week:

Last weekend’s reading weekend was the best idea that I have had in a long while. I completed two books and almost completed two other books.
Nic Cage Quarterly is back this month! Hoping to watch at least 15 movies this month.
The weather is holding out this week for more park time after coop.
It’s looking like February is going to be another big month for reading.

Next up on the TBR pile:

A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

Title: A Holly Jolly Ever After (Christmas Notch #2)

Author: Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

Publisher: Avon 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Pages: 432

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Pregnancy

Spice Rating: 5

Kallum Liebermanis the funny one™. As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, he enjoyed his fifteen minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! He’s living his best dad bod life, hooking up with bridesmaids at all his friends’ weddings. But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel.

Winnie Baker did everything right. She married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. Hell, she even waited until marriage to have sex. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself—and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie?

With decade old Hollywood history between them, Winnie and Kallum are both feeling hesitant about their new situation as costars…especially Winnie who can’t seem to fake on screen pleasure she’s never experienced in real life. She’s willing to do the pleasure research—for science and artistic authenticity, of course. And there’s no better research partner than her bridesmaid sex tape hall of fame costar, Kallum. But suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.

They say opposites attract, but is this holly jolly ever after really ready for its close-up?

Spoilers Below!

Oh this was such a disappointment… After the first book in the series, I was very exacted to read the next book featuring Kallum. And the first half of the book was great. I fell for Winnie and Kallum. I really enjoyed the discussion about purity culture and the after-effects of bad relationships and marriages. I was excited to see Winnie making strides in her own sexual growth and independence. I loved seeing the two main characters begin to open up to each others and their friends and families. It was delightful. And then we get tot he second half of the book and absolutely everything gets destroyed. Instead of continuing Winnie’s journey of growth, she becomes pregnant and everything goes off the rails. She tells everyone but Kallum. She doesn’t communicate or handle anything well. But my biggest complaint is that instead of continuing the journey, Winnie immediately becomes pregnant. In many ways, purity culture warns that having sex leads to degradation and immediate pregnancy. In this case, at least the second part becomes true. And it annoys me so much! This is not a good message.

Christmas Notch

#1 A Merry Little Meet Cute
#1.5 Snow Place Like LA
#2 A Holly Jolly Ever After

Next up on the TBR pile:

System Collapse by Martha Wells

Title: System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2023

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 245

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

This definitely should have just been the second half of Network Effect in that it picks up right after that book ends. We finally get to see the end to the story about the alien contamination on the planet. I was intrigued by the back-and-forth between Murderbot’s team and the Barish-Estranza team. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t have the snark and fun side commentary that I really enjoy about the Murderbot stories. I just wasn’t as connected to the story as I wanted to be.

Murderbot Diaries:

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Within Temptation "Bleed Out"

Apparently I’ve really been into women led hard rock bands lately.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Confetti Realms

Title: Confetti Realms

Author: Nadia Shammas, Karnessa

Publisher: Maverick 2023

Genre: YA Graphic Novel

Pages: 196

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love

Follow the story of four New Jersey teens who, after breaking into a cemetery on Halloween, get transported to a strange and fantastical world by a mysterious automaton named Tom. When Tom sends them on a quest to gain him entry to a party at the end of the world, our unlikely (and mostly unwilling) heroes will have to navigate murderous frogs, an insect orchestra, and the cracks in their own friendships.

Found this slim graphic novel on a library list for Fairy Tale books. I grabbed it and sped through in an afternoon. This is a beautiful little story about finding your joy and accepting who you are. We get four friends (well, almost friends) who are navigating identity and community. They get thrown into another world which heightens all their feelings. I loved the magical take on finding yourself. And some the side character are utterly delightful.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Title: Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6)

Author: Martha Wells

Publisher: Tor.com 2021

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 172

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: COYER

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!

Again!

Apparently I did read this one when it came out, but completely forgot the plot. While it is #6 in the series, chronologically the story belongs between Exit Strategy and Network Effect. We are right back on Preservation Station solving a seemingly impossible murder. Of course Murderbot is stuck in the middle making sure the humans don’t die. This felt like a strange little side adventure and didn’t include much snark from Muderbot. The snark is why I read this series. Oh well.

Murderbot Diaries:

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Last One by Will Dean

Title: The Last One

Author: Will Dean

Publisher: Emily Bestler Books 2023

Genre: Thriller

Pages: 448

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Clock - One; 52 Book Club - Abrupt Ending

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white-knuckled mystery.

I’m not usually a thriller person. I find them way too predictable and silly. But I heard good things about this one and was intrigued by the last person on a cruise ship setup. Of course she’s not actually the only person on the ship, that would get old quick, but a great limited people setup is revealed near the beginning. I sped through the pages desperate to see what happened next, wondering what the next challenge or obstacle would be. There was one particular scene near the end that made me gasp out loud. This was the perfect book to spend a few days on the edge of my seat reading.

Next up on the TBR pile:

February 2024 Life Goals

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

Read 18 Books ✓
Emails for Retreats (January and June) ✓
Finalize Coop Plans for Spring ✓
Get Started on our 52 Hikes for the Year ✓

February Goals:

Read 18 Books
Relax During My Reading Weekend
Finalize Guest List for the Bookish Retreat
Start the Homeschool Supplies Cleanout

Next up on the TBR pile:

January 2024 Wrap-up

January TBR Pile (31/31):

Bookworms BC: Mrs. Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca ✓
Friend BC: The Fortune Hunter by Daisy Goodwin ✓
Friend BC: The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott ✓
Nerdy Bookish Friends BC: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey ✓
Kid Read Aloud: James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl ✓
Kid Read Aloud: Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-El ✓
Kid Read Aloud: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg ✓
Kid Book Club: A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd ✓
Kid Book Club: The Fourteenth Goldfish by Natalie Lloyd ✓
Fantasy: Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman ✓
Fantasy: Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman ✓
Fantasy: The Dungeon Anarachist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman ✓
Fantasy: The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman ✓
Fantasy: Timekeeper by Tara Simm ✓
Fantasy: Signal Moon ny Kate Quinn ✓
Fantasy: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden ✓
Fantasy: Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson ✓
Fantasy: The Magician by Rebecca Serle ✓
Science Fiction: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (reread) ✓
Science Fiction: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (reread) ✓
Science Fiction: Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (reread) ✓
Science Fiction: Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (reread) ✓
Science Fiction: Network Effect by Martha Wells (reread) ✓
Nonfiction: Share Your Stuff, I’ll Go First by Laura Tremaine ✓
Romance: Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan ✓
Romance:: A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert ✓
Romance: Damaged Goods by Talia Hibbert ✓
Romance: Under Her Skin by Adriana Anders ✓
Romance: Teach Me by Olivia Dade ✓
Romance: Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura ✓
Romance: Mr. Fixer Upper by Lucy Score ✓

1,000,000 Page Goal:

Monthly Total: 9306 pages
Pages Remaining: 265,682 pages

Current Read - Guards! Guards! by Terry Prachett (kid read aloud); The Last One by Will Dean; Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert

Books I Gave Up On (0)

Books Bought/Received (8):

I grabbed the preorder of Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert.

Half Price Books finds during their after Christmas sale.

The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May
Malamander by Thomas Taylor
Lockwood & Co.: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud
The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing by Sheila Turnage

At the Barnes and Noble sale after Christmas, I came away with five books for me:

A Power Unbound by Freya Marske
Amari and the Great Game by BB Alston
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller
The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas

UnRead Shelf Progress

Starting Number: 324
Books Read: 2
Books Acquired: 8
Books Unshelved: 0
Finishing Number: 330

February TBR Pile:

Bookworms BC: That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert (reread)
Friend BC: The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
Nerdy Bookish Friends BC: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Kid Read Aloud: Guards! Guards! by Terry Prachett
Kid Read Aloud: Ban This Book by Alan Gratz
Kid Book Club: The Boy at the Back of the Class by Anjali Rauf
Fantasy: The Butcher’s Masquerade by Matt Dinniman
Science Fiction: Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
Science Fiction: System Collapse by Martha Wells
Romance: Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert
Romance: Untouchable by Talia Hibbert
Thriller/Mystery: The Last One by Will Dean

Movies Watched

Top Secret
Saltburn
The Bricklayer
Self-Reliance
Chicken Run 2: Dawn of the Nugget
Oppenheimer
Relax, I’m from the Future
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched
The Marvels
Top Gun: Maverick
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One
The Beekeeper

TV Shows Watched

Letterkenny S12 (the last season!!!!)
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist S1
The White House Plumbers
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Yonderland S1
Party Down S3
The Buccaneers
Our Flag Means Death S2
Below Deck: Med
The Bachelor S28

Comments - Wow! Due to a ton of snow storms, we spent a lot of January in the house. And I read a ton of books and we watched a ton of media. Thankfully, we are able to get out of the house at the end of the month, but it was a very strange month. I only read two books from my Unread Shelf, but I have big plans for February’s reading. Ready for a new month.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Currently #2

Reading: I picked up The Last One by Will Dean for my Clock Reading Challenge. I’m not usually into thrillers, but I was intrigued by this one.

Watching: Weirdly, we fell into a Tom Cruise movie hole this week. We watched Top Gun: Maverick and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1.

Listening: Finishing out the Murderbot series on audio this week. I don’t usually got for audiobooks, but have been listening to these in the background this month.

Making: Quentin requested banana bread and I made it. So good! I might just have to make another loaf later this week for the weekend.

Feeling: The temperatures finally increased. In fact, the temps increased by almost 70 degrees. Intense! I would have been okay with temps in the 30s. Instead we are not in the 40s and 50s.

Planning: I will be teaching chemistry the next two weeks (with a collaborative teacher). And so, we are planning the experiments and procedures.

Loving: I’m leaving on Friday to spend a quiet weekend reading in a rented house with a few friends. Getting away from the family for a weekend sounds absolutely amazing right now. As such, I have a stack of 10 books that I’m taking. I need a variety of genres, book sizes, and reading levels. Super excited!

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W19: Back to Normal Somehow

What We Studied

The snow storms finally calmed down and we got back outside for some activities. Unfortunately, coop was cancelled due to a scheduling issue with the city. But we did see friends at other events and got some school work completed.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur has really gotten into our read aloud. It’s led to questions about censorship and increased interest in the other books the text mentions. In fact, our next read aloud is name dropped in the book. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills. We continued the first Reading Explorer book which focuses on reading comprehension. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

Ban This Book by Alan Gratz
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
My America poem collection
Reading Explorer 1

Quentin picked up another Zoey and Sassafras book to read this week instead of the scheduled book. That’s fine by me. I’m still really focused on Quentin’s enjoyment when it comes to literature selections. We are pushing our Blossom and Root lessons out another week. He also worked on some basic grammar.

Sing a Song of Seasons
Zoey and Sassafras: Unicorns and Germs by Asia Citro
Little Penguin's New Friend by Tadgh Bentley

Math

Arthur dove into 5B with a unit on Decimals. Most of it was review, but it was a good review for him. We’re flying through the lessons.

Singapore Common Core 5B
Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued Singapore 2A with a big review of numbers to 1000. We also continued our logic book.

Lollipop Logic Book 3
Singapore Common Core 2A

Social Studies

Arthur started learning about World War I this week. We did a big overview of the conflict and talked about Woodrow Wilson. Our curriculum only spends one week on the war, but I’m going to expand it out for 2-3 weeks of topics and coverage.

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

Instead of a big chapter on Greece, we started reading the story of The Odyssey to ease into the topic.

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
Find the Journeys Around the World by David Long
Tales from the Odyssey Book One by Mary Pope Osborne

Science

We were back at Chemistry class this week. They talked and explored molecules and bonds. Plus we read another chapter in our Story of Science book. This one was about alchemy.

RSO Chemistry
DK Super Simple Chemistry
Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim
DK The Elements

Quentin got back into the RSO Life curriculum and covered mammals this week.

RSO Life
DK Oversimple Biology
A Mammal is an Animal by Lizzy Rockwell
Mammals by Ann O. Squire
About Mammals by Cathryn Sill

STEAM Coop

None this week

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

We didn’t actually cover any art or music this week. But we did manage to watch two documentaries. Arthur and I watched a NOVA episode about aviation during World War I. I learned a ton! Quentin and I were going to watch one about Ancient Greece, but the file was corrupted. Instead, we watched on about The Life of Mammals. The episode focused on marsupials. He actually paid attention to the documentary, so I’m calling it a win!

DK Music and How it Works
DK The Arts
DK Art and How It Works
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
13 Art Movements Children Should Know
13 Artists Children Should Know
13 Modern Artists Children Should Know
The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström
Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge
Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter by Susan Goldman Rubin
Andy Warhol Pop Art Painter by Susan Goldman Rubin
Uncle Andy’s by James Warhola
Uncle Andy’s Cats by James Warhola
Fabulous! A Portrait of Andy Warhol by Bonnie Christensen
Art is Everywhere: A Book About Andy Warhol by Jeff Mack
Biography Book by Mike Venezia

Field Trip

Not an organized field trip, but we did spend an entire morning at the zoo with some friends. We had actually been since December, and really since October before that, so it was nice to rediscover our favorite displays. Extra fun, there were a ton of docents out and hardly any visitors, so we got to chat with a ton of people about specific animals. The desert dome was a big hit this week. .

High (and Low)

Coop was cancelled this week due to the city basically overruling our contract and taking the space. Very annoying! We pivoted and spent three hours playing at Backyard Playworld. Sometimes it’s really nice to just let the kids engage in free play while I get to chat with adults.

Next Week

Finishing our current read aloud
Continuing our World War I study for history
Moving forward into new our math units
Exploring some new concepts about the periodic table
Easing into Greece with some myths and stories
Transitioning to human anatomy for science
Hopefully heading outside for a nature walk and field trip

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Apocalyptica feat. Elize Ryd "What We're Up Against"

I always love to see the collaborations from Apocalyptica and other artists. This one caught my ear.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Life Right Now #3

As I look outside my window: The sun has finally decided to make a bit of a comeback after multiple days without it.

Right now I am: Heading out to the coop steering committee meeting. I’ve got a whole agenda, but the biggest thing is a the creation of a survey to really get at our needs.

Thinking and pondering: How many books is too many for one weekend? Right now I have a stack of 10 books for next weekend.

On my bedside table: A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone; Midnight Ruin by Katee Robert

On my tv this week: J and I ended up watching a decent amount of television and movies. We finally started S2 of Our Flag Means Death and continued with some random sitcoms we are watching.

Listening to: Mostly audiobooks. I am jumping back into the Murderbot series. Hoping to knock out the last two books this week.

On the menu for this week:

Monday - Jerk Pork with Caribbean Salsa
Tuesday - Manicotti
Wednesday - Chicken Tortilla Soup
Thursday - Bacon Cheddar Waffles
Friday - Gone
Saturday - Gone
Sunday - Leftovers

On my to do list: Appointments need to be make. I also need to finish packing for my reading weekend.

Happening this week:

Monday - Chemistry Class
Tuesday - Hot Shops Pottery Demo; Book Club
Wednesday - Home Day
Thursday - Coop; Homeschool Dance (third time’s a charm!)
Friday - Board Game Hangout; Reading Weekend!!!!
Saturday - Reading Weekend
Sunday - Reading Weekend

What I am creating: Nothing much. My photo paper delivery was delayed which means that I can’t do much with my Memory Planner or December Daily this weekend.

My simple pleasures: Getting outside, temperatures above negative numbers, parents’ happy hour for adult conversations

Looking around the house: Meh. I’ll take it. Although I do want to move the bins out of the hallway and back into the garage. Wonder if I can do it with J noticing..

From the camera: Just some elephants in the snow… we got to see all four baby elephants (only one pictured below) during our trip to the zoo. The fifth one is due someone late February-early March.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Title: The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Publisher: Reagan Arthur 2012

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 423

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Decades - 1920s; In Case You Missed It - 2012

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart -- he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone -- but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

Our Nerdy Bookish Friends selection for the month and it’s been on my TBR shelf for years. I’m glad that we decided to read it, but ended up being fairly disappointed in the book. I absolutely loved the writing of this book. Ivey manages to make the bleak landscape and the wilderness sound beautiful. I found myself lost in all nature descriptions. They are gorgeous and kept me engaged in the book. But that’s where my enjoyment ends. I wanted to love the storyline and I did enjoy the Russian fairy tale angle. Unfortunately, the characters and the storyline do not make much sense to me. Mabel and Jack are extremely unlikeable throughout the book and I never truly connected to them. They seemed to show growth and then would lose all growth in the next chapter. I had lots of thoughts about where the plot was going throughout most of the book and then the last section happens and nothing made sense. I don’t want to give it away, but the end of the book makes no sense to me at all. I just couldn’t get over the lack of logic.

Next up on the TBR pile:

Mr. Fixer Upper by Lucy Score

Title: Mr. Fixer Upper (Fixer #1)

Author: Lucy Score

Publisher: Bloom Books 2017

Genre: Romance

Pages: 386

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: She Reads Romance - Reality TV; Library Love

Spice Rating: 5

It’s a constant battle on set between sexy home renovation reality star grumpy Gannon and his no-nonsense field producer. Paige has zero time for temperamental talent, especially one who acts like being in front of the camera is the last thing he wants.

Mr. Sex in a Toolbelt has made it his mission in life to get a rise out of her, but Paige is a master at locking down her temper. They’re on the road together working long hours fixing houses and changing lives. When cracks in her legendary coolness start to show and sparks fly, Gannon is infatuated and the cameras are there to capture it.

But he’s fallen for pretty packages before and Paige won’t be taken seriously if she’s caught sleeping with the star of her show. She also can’t seem to resist those big, rough hands. Those smoldery hazel eyes. The dimples. The toolbelt. That fiercely protective vibe.

Too bad it’s all about to fall apart.
She never should have trusted him.
He never should have let her go.

At Christmas, I actually read the second one last month and really enjoyed it. So, I picked up the first one in the series for this month’s reading. The book had a lot more drama and serious conversations than I was expecting. I really did fall for Gannon and Paige as they navigate their undeniable attraction. The reality TV angle added just the right amount of other characters and background plot to continue the romantic storyline. The steamy scenes are very well done and steamy. I ended dup speeding through this one, but it was a lovely story. I just might have to read more from Lucy Score.

Fixer

#1 Mr. Fixer Upper
#2 The Christmas Fix

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

Title: The Secrets We Kept

Author: Lara Prescott

Publisher: Knopf 2019

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 349

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Decades - 1950s; 52 Book Club - 4 Different POV

At the height of the Cold War, Irina, a young Russian-American secretary, is plucked from the CIA typing pool and given the assignment of a lifetime. Her mission: to help smuggle Doctor Zhivago into the USSR, where it is banned, and enable Boris Pasternak’s magnum opus to make its way into print around the world. Mentoring Irina is the glamorous Sally Forrester: a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit, using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Under Sally’s tutelage, Irina learns how to invisibly ferry classified documents—and discovers deeply buried truths about herself.

One of the book club selections for the year. Thank good that this story is by and large interesting and thought-provoking. We follow multiple women in multiple locations as they are involved in a variety of espionage activities. The story mostly focuses on Olga and Irina, but I found their stories not my favorite. I wanted to hear even more about the typists and specifically about Sally. It was fascinating to me how the various women are directly involved in espionage, but are still somehow left out of actual intelligence. It’s an interesting dichotomy in history. By the end of the book, I was very sad about the fates of all the women featured in the book. But the story is probably much more realistic that way.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Gate of the Feral Gods by Matt Dinniman

Title: The Gate of the Feral Gods (Dungeon Crawler Carl #4)

Author: Matt Dinniman

Publisher: Dandy House 2021

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 632

Rating: 5/5 stars

Reading Challenges:

New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.

You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that’s talent.

A floating fortress occupied by warrior gnomes. A castle made of sand. A derelict submarine guarded by malfunctioning machines. A haunted crypt surrounded by lethal traps.

It was supposed to be easy. One bubble. Four castles. Fifteen days. Capture each one, and the stairwell is unlocked.

Here's the thing. It's never easy. Carl and his team can't go it alone. Not this time. They must rely on the help of the low-level, I-can't-believe-these-idiots-are-still-alive crawlers trapped in the bubble with them. But can they be trusted?

Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the fifth floor of the dungeon.

Yet another amazing Carl book in which I gasped out loud no fewer than 10 times. The level got a little convoluted in itself, but the characters shine through to really make this book. It was lovely to see more scenes involving other crawlers and the larger storyline at play. We get some epic action scenes and some great adversaries. Denise, the feral goose, was absolutely amazing! Hands-down my favorite boss in the series. Once we got to the last two hours of the book, I couldn’t put it down. Shit hit the fan and I had to keep reading to find out how Carl and Donut were going to survive this one! Cannot wait to read to the next one in the series.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

#1 Dungeon Crawler Carl
#2 Carl’s Doomsday Scenario
#3 The Dungeon' Anarchist’s Cookbook
#4 The Gate of the Feral Gods
#5 The Butcher’s Masquerade
#6 The Eye of the Bedlam Bride

Next up on the TBR pile:

Homeschool W18: More Cancelled Activities

What We Studied

The weather threw us for another loop and we had to cancel a variety of activities this week. On the flip side, we got a ton of random school bookwork done this week instead of going out.

Literature and Poetry

Arthur finished both our read aloud and the coop book club selection. And we started the next read aloud. It’s related to our previous one and should spark some interesting discussions about censorship. Beyond the actual literature, we are working on some basic grammar skills. We started the first Reading Explorer book which focuses on reading comprehension. He also continued his Super Secret Notebook from Blossom & Root.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg
Band This Book by Alan Gratz
The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
My America poem collection
Reading Explorer 1

Quentin finished our read aloud. He gave it three stars out of five stars. But he claims that he really liked it. We are pushing our Blossom and Root lessons out two weeks. He also worked on some basic grammar.

Sing a Song of Seasons
Just Beyond the Very Very Far North by Dan Bar-El
Fox Versus Winter by Corey R. Tabor
Winter is for Snow by Robert Neubecker
Little Penguins by Cynthia Rylant
Penguin Problems by Jory John & Lane Smith
Winter White by Christianne C. Jones
Five Flying Penguins by Barbara Barbieri McGrath
A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett
Penguins Don't Wear Sweaters by Marikka Tamura
The King Penguin by Vanessa Roeder
Pirate & Penguin by Mike Allegra
Winter Lullaby by Dianne White
Virgil & Owen Stick Together by Paulette Bogan
The Trouble with Penguins by Rebecca Jordan-Glum
When Winter Comes by Aimee M. Bissonette

Math

Arthur finished the last unit for Singapore 5A. We covered ratios this week. We will move on to 5B.

Singapore Common Core 5A
Orbiting with Logic

Quentin continued Singapore 2A with a big review of numbers to 1000. We also continued our logic book.

Lollipop Logic Book 3
Singapore Common Core 2A

Social Studies

Arthur covered the Spanish American War this week. This sets use everything for our World War I study next week.

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
Cobblestone: The Spanish-American War

Quentin took a little break from our regular history chapters and covered the ancient city of Troy this week.

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
Find the Journeys Around the World by David Long
The Wooden Horse of Troy by Cari Meister
The Trojan Horse: How the Greeks Won the War by Emily Little

Science

We ended up not going to chemistry class due to the weather and my migraine. We did cover the text information and should be good for next week’s meeting. Plus we read two chapters in our Story of Science book.

RSO Chemistry
DK Super Simple Chemistry
Story of Science Vol. 2: Newton at the Center by Joy Hakim
DK The Elements

Quentin got back into the RSO Life curriculum and covered birds this week.

RSO Life
DK Oversimple Biology
Birds by Ann O. Squire
Birds by Jon Wood
Birds by Carme Lemniscates
Birds by Kevin Henkes
Birds by Pamela Hickman
Birds by Miranda Krestovnikoff
Bird Count by Susan Edwads Richmond
The Last Rainbow Bird by Nora Brech

STEAM Coop

The weather gave us a bit of a break the meant we actually got to meet this week. Quentin’s class takes about shapes and made some 3-D shapes using toothpicks and clay. I taught Arthur’s class and we covered symmetry. Along with a name symmetry graphing activity, we started an origami project to carry over to next week.

Art/Music/Crafts/Cooking/Documentary

Because of the weather, we ended up bumping art and music into our plan this week. The boys really got into the art from Andy Warhol, especially loving the soup paintings. And they enjoyed the music for the week also.

DK Music and How it Works
DK The Arts
DK Art and How It Works
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
13 Art Movements Children Should Know
13 Artists Children Should Know
13 Modern Artists Children Should Know
The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning & Brita Granström
Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge
Andy Warhol: Pop Art Painter by Susan Goldman Rubin
Andy Warhol Pop Art Painter by Susan Goldman Rubin
Uncle Andy’s by James Warhola
Uncle Andy’s Cats by James Warhola
Fabulous! A Portrait of Andy Warhol by Bonnie Christensen
Art is Everywhere: A Book About Andy Warhol by Jeff Mack
Biography Book by Mike Venezia

Field Trip

The weather cancelled our planned field trip. Thankfully we got it rescheduled for later in the month.

High

Getting stuck in the house was not exciting, but we did get a ton of book work done. And we had lots of cozy time reading and playing games.

Low

The weather was killing us once again. Snow storms and temperatures below zero really hindered our plans.

Next Week

Starting our new read aloud
Beginning our World War I study for history
Jumping into new our math units
Exploring some new concepts about the periodic table
Easing into Greece with some myths and stories
Learning about mammals for science
Hopefully heading outside for a nature walk and field trip

Next up on the TBR pile:

Music Monday - Sum 41 "Rise Up"

Throwback band for this week! Loving this new song. Bringing my punk days to the forefront.

Next up on the TBR pile: