Book 34: True Love

 True Love by Destin Bays was an interesting book.

This book starts back in 326 BC when fate brings together to characters, Mikolas and Helena.  They meet and almost instantly fall in love.  Of course as the times dictate they must go through the proper stages of courtship and hopefully their love will prove true enough to marry. 

Centuries later two other people are brought together by fate.  Nickolas and Elena are instantly drawn to each other.  Their lives have brought them from different directions and now they must chose if their path will continue together.  Can hearts be connected from ages past? Can true love last a lifetime?  Only reading it will allow you to answer those questions.

I'd give this book 4 stars.

Book 33: 8 Easy Vegetables to Grow in Containers

8 Easy Vegetables to Grow in Containers by Peter Davies was full of good tips for growing a container garden.  He went over the basics for container gardening and then branched off into different veggies that would grow well. If we had decided to give gardening a try this year, I would have referred back to this book for some helpful information.

I'd give this book 4 stars.

Book 32: Summer Cooking

I guess I need to stop reading/looking at cookbooks.  I find most good ideas on Pinterest at this point, or searching online.  The cookbooks I've looked at recently are all free, so that is good as I haven't really discovered any great recipes that I want to try.

If you haven't been cooking long, or are really looking for recipes and aren't hindered by other family members tastes then this book might be a good choice for you.

I'd give it 1 star, wasn't helpful for me, but might be for you.

Book 31: Say Goodbye To Survival Mode

My goal for this year was to stop living in survival mode and actually feel like I was living.  Having order is important to me, but sometimes I get so focused on the order that I forget to enjoy the life.
 This book by Crystal Paine is a wonderful book full of tips to help you stop surviving and start living.  Life is a journey, why not enjoy it?
" My greatest hope for you is that you can escape from feeling stuck and find the freedom and fulfillment that comes from living your life on purpose" location 152

This book is so full of tips it's hard to summarize.  Here are a few of my favorite tips:

Streamline your life and cut schedule clutter so you can focus your time and energy on the things that matter most. -location 159

Create a personal priorities list and use it a as a spring-board for culling your commitments and to-do list.- location 160

Stop believing the lies that you can do it all, be it all and have it all.- location 209

In order to say yes, you must learn to say no.-location 275

If you are struggling with all the stuff you need to get done, this book is worth the money it costs and the time it takes to help you refocus on what matters and how to handle those things.

I'd give this book 10 stars, even though I'm using a 5 star scale!!!

Book 30: Easy Weeknight Dinners

Book 30 is Easy Weeknight Dinners by Dennis Weaver


I'm always looking for some new recipes to try and this book had a few good tips, but really didn't peak my interest with recipes.
The tips were, when meal planning to:
1. Choose a meat for the main dish
2. Choose a seasoning, sauce, or gravy
3. Choose a starch
4. Choose a side dish or two

Other than that, which I really already know to do, the book wasn't filled with anything that really interested me.  Someone else may find it helpful, especially a new cook, but I've been cooking for years, so it didn't provide much help for my skill set.

I'd give this book 1 star.

Books 28-29: Rick Riordan is a genius!

I can imagine that when you've created a book series after awhile you'd get tired of writing about the characters. But I must say that Rick Riordan is a genius and should keep the stories coming if he possibly can.  My kids and I started reading his Percy Jackson series quite awhile ago.  We used them as read alouds  and truly enjoyed them. (As a side note while the 2 movies that have since come out of Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief and Sea of Monsters are good on their own they are not near as good as the books, and don't really follow the books.) Anyway, after reading the Percy Jackson series we started reading the Kane Chronicles, and then also the Heroes of Olympus books.  All are great reads for kids as well as adults. 
The two books I'm reviewing in this post are The  Son of Sobek and The Staff of Serapis, both are short stories that we downloaded-and paid for, which means I really wanted to read them since usually I focus on the FREE books!

 In The Son of Sobek we get the first ever cross over of the Egyptian and Greek series.  In this book Carter Kane, from the Kane Chronicles, is trying to protect a neighborhood from something that has been terrorizing the lake near it. He isn't sure what he's facing, but armed with just his staff and his magician's bag he heads out.  In the midst of discovering what it is Percy Jackson shows up, he too is wondering what has been going on in the area.  They both are startled to find others with powers that they did not know about.  As they struggle to determine how they each could live close to each other and know nothing about each other, they also struggle to determine who the other person is and if they are a threat or an ally.  On top of it they now have a monster to fight and must decide if they can trust each other to work together to rid the neighborhood of threat.
The book was wonderful, it was a very quick read and certainly left me wishing there would be more cross over stories.

I'd give this book 5 stars!

  In the Staff of Serapis Annabeth, from the Percy Jackson series, comes in contact with Sadie from the Kane Chronicles.  This is also an exciting book that allows these characters to try to come to terms with their being other people with special powers living near each other without ever knowing it.  Their task this time is to determine who created the 3 headed monster they are facing, why it was created and how can they possibly stop it.  Will they work together and trust each other, or fight against each other.  One choice will allow them to win, one choice will cause them to fail. Which choice will they make? 
The story again was short, but definitely a good story.  With both of these books I found myself wanting the author to start a whole new series of joint effort stories.  Hopefully, he will do just that.

Great read! 5 stars!

Book 27: The Everything Pet Rabbit Handbook

These books are a bit out of the order that I read them, but considering it's been since April that I updated my reading list I suppose just getting the books typed up is something.  I really never thought we'd be rabbit owners.  I always thought they were cute, but still, they were for kids who had 4 H projects. I have absolutely nothing against 4 H, we just don't live in an area where there is a group, so honestly just never gave bunnies a second thought.  Of course, my daughter has been thinking about it for 3 years and finally convinced her Dad when we picked her up from horse camp.  Yes, they keep bunnies at horse camp so they can talk about small animal care. ( or possibly to make all the parents crazy!)
Anyway, here we are now rabbit owners and since it is the day and age that it is I turned to an ebook for information. The book I found is The Everything Pet Rabbit Handbook by Sarah Martin.

This book was very helpful. It laid out topics for before purchase, and then after purchase. It discussed food, liter box training, and where to keep your bunny. It also had links to the website for more information.

I would give this book 5 stars, as I highly recommend it for new rabbit owners.