Innocent in Las Vegas - AR Winters

A good quick read. A story that has been told before though.

A woman wants to become a private investigator and gets her first case and muddles her way through it with the help of a sexy mysterious guy that owns his own security firm. The family loves the guy and who wouldn't but the girl is in denial of needing help let alone a hot sexy man...

Everybody Freaks Out! - T Rowe Price

I received this as a Goodreads First Read. I ranked this as "it's ok". It is a children's book but for adults. I guess my daughter would like the pictures but the content I would not read to her once she is able to understand.

Having gone to college, and still enrolled in a Masters program I fully am aware of the cost of college and how expensive it is right now. I can only imagine how much it will be when my daughter is ready to go. I started a very simple savings plan before she was born to help with the cost and I still worry that it may not be enough.

I am not overly fond of people talking to me like a child and while this is a cutsey rhyme about saving up for college and the 529 plan I could have skipped reading it and just read an informational pamphlet. Illustrations were not bad though so I did like that.

Hogwarts Library

As a very early birthday present my hubby bought me the Hogwarts Library set. This set was awesome! I am a huge Harry Potter fan and these three books are supposed to be like textbooks that Harry would have carried to class. They are a further glimpse into the world that JK Rowling created.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  describes some of the creatures that Harry sees in the 7 books we all know and love. There are some scribbles from the characters that make it cutsey.



The Tales of Beedle the Bard are magical children's stories. I think these will be great night time stories for my little monkey! The last story in the book is about the Deathly Hollows, nice to have it in a short story form to read aloud!



Quidditch Through the Ages breaks down Quidditch through the ages... see what I did there? It is amazing how much detail JKR puts into every aspect of her magical world. It makes it all the more vivid.

Itsy Bitsy Spider - Willow Rose

This book captured me from page one. I have been having difficulty finding a book to grab my attention, I am currently in the middle of about five books since not one of them really grabbed me. Itsy Bitsy Spider is a page turner though. I thought I knew what was happening, I thought I knew the ending but this book pulled one turn after another and I got lost in the pages!

Haiku My Cat Told Me The Kitty Speaks - Ken Malcom

Another Goodreads First Read. 

Cute haiku with popular internet photos.

Poems are not usually my first choice of reading material so not really sure how to review them. If you ever owned a cat you can appreciate the truth behind some of the haiku written. Great brain break book.

Nine Friends: In Time of Loss - Jeannie Seeley-Smith

I received this as a free download from the author. 

I thought this book was just okay. It was a super quick read and I think the price point would be a little high to grab my interest in a bookstore or online for a book that is barely 60 pages.

This book allowed for a more visual picture of the stages of loss and grief. I think it would offer someone a shallow glimpse of what someone else is going through to potentially help understand where they are on the road to recovering from a loss of someone or something. I have been through the stages of loss/grief and I do not think this book totally grasps at the emotions that I went through, this could be because of the small number of pages or because the author themselves experienced a different type of loss/grief. The title and the plot holds a ton of potential and if it was fleshed out it could be worth the price tag.

Children's Books

Just recently read The Tooth Book by Theo Lesieg (Dr. Seuss) and It's Not Easy Being Big by Stephanie St Pierre. These  are great books to have a sing song tone to when reading and easily grasps the attention of my nine month old. She loves to smack the pages once they are turned or close the book so she can pet the cover of the books which have great images!

Just One Thing - Holly Jacobs

I received this as a Goodreads First Read. My only complaint is the font used throughout the book. my eyes are old and italicized font is harder to read. The story itself was well done. Two people find themselves and overcome their past with a little help from each other. An over used plot idea but somehow different and beautifully done. You laugh and cry and want to hug your family members and fur kids close and be thankful for all the little moments. This was an easy read, took me just over a day but worth it. Makes you want to slow down and appreciate the moments, the "one-things" that you have had in the past and now that make you who you are.

Children's Books

There are some nursery rhymes that just get caught in your head. Especially the ones that your children love to hear and you read 100 times a day. As of right now my nine month old is obsessed with the Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton. I must say that I like it too, but that just might be because her cute little face scrunches up and she huffs and puffs at me as I sing it to her (her version of a giggle).

Then there are the books from when I was little, Little Bunny Foo Foo by Michael Rosen and Arthur Robins. I love singing this to my little monkey. She closes her eyes every time I tap her on the top of her head and smiles as I tell her sternly I am going to turn her into a goon!

The classics, Dr. Seuss. One Fish Two Fish is sadly my least favorite, though I still like it since I love all of the doctors works! I do not remember a lot of this story past the fishes and it is all over the place. I think it will be great when my daughter starts learning to read but there is no personal enjoyment for me to read it to her. I much prefer his other books such as the Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.

The Undecided - Robin Donaruma

I received this as a Goodreads First Read. This book was very interesting! Usually not my favorite genre but my attention was grabbed in the first couple chapters. I liked that there was not a lot of useless dialogue that a lot of books these days seem to have. Also, I liked that there were a few life lessons to be learned a long the way. I will save this book and make my children read it once they are in school to hopefully impress on them some of the behaviors that the main character has. It was overall an easy read but not mindless. There is a lot of supernatural involved but the underlying meaning is a great life lesson that not only do I enjoy as an adult but I could see a teenager enjoying too.