So Many Books, So Little Time

Synopsis:  England 1651. England has been engaged in a bitter Civil War for nearly ten years. Ralph Chaplin, a farmer’s son, has fallen for beautiful copper-haired Kate. There is only one problem – he is a Roundhead soldier and she is a Royalist lady. Tired of bloodshed, Ralph volunteers to fight, sensing that the Battle at Worcester will be a chance to finish the fighting for good. He longs for peace, so he can forge a secure future and find a different, more equal way of life for himself and Kate. But war is not what he imagined, and soon he has made a deadly enemy; one who will pursue Ralph and those he loves, and wreak vengeance. What’s more, Ralph finds he has just as many enemies at home, as on the battlefield. Told by Ralph’s ghost, Spirit of the Highway is the stand-alone second part of the Highway Trilogy based on the real life and legend of Lady Katherine Fanshawe, highwaywoman and heiress. My Thoughts:  Spirit of the Highway is the sequel to Ms. Swift&

From Goodreads:  Independent and beautiful, Élisabeth Vigée, affectionately called Lisette by friends and family, has progressed in the art of oil painting faster than anyone could have anticipated. Having received instruction from her beloved father, Louis Vigée, a prominent Parisian guild painter, Lisette possesses all the qualities of a brilliant young painter, but is saddled with a singular disadvantage – being a woman in 18-century Paris. Undeterred, Lisette believes that she can become a painter. Approaching a marriageable age, her parents have other plans for Lisette, ones that don’t include painting. Lisette finds support in Queen Marie Antoinette and a dashing art collector and French Army officer named Amante, who is clearly intrigued by her talent and beauty. After Lisette’s father dies unexpectedly, her family is left in dire financial straits. Lisette wants to support her family, but before she can sell a single painting, her mother marries a wealthy merch

Hey y'all!  It's Read-a-Thon time again!  I'm so excited to participate!  This is my fifth time participating and I'm looking forward to reading and keeping up with everyone else's progress.  I will do most of my updates on Twitter today so if you want to see what I'm up to, follow me at @so_many_books. I have a lot of books on my stack; two are ebooks and three are physical books.  It's easier for me to read ebooks throughout the day because I can read them on my phone.  My daughter starts toddler soccer this morning but otherwise, I'm going to really try to get some reading done (hopefully my two year old will cooperate!).  I actually had a much smaller stack picked out originally and ended up adding more because I wanted to keep my options open. My Stack: The Good Girl by Mary Kubica Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling Enchantress of Paris b

From Goodreads:  With the dead of a bitter Vermont winter closing in, evil is alive and well … Frank Rath thought he was done with murder when he turned in his detective's badge to become a private investigator and raise a daughter alone. Then the police in his remote rural community of Canaan find an '89 Monte Carlo abandoned by the side of the road, and the beautiful teenage girl who owned the car seems to have disappeared without a trace. Soon Rath's investigation brings him face-to-face with the darkest abominations of the human soul. With the consequences of his violent and painful past plaguing him, and young women with secrets vanishing one by one, he discovers once again that even in the smallest towns on the map, evil lurks everywhere-and no one is safe. My Thoughts:  The first chapter of this book is crazy scary and got my attention right away.  However, after that chapter, the story slowed down for a bit and it was hard to get into.  I also struggle

      1.) The Best Man 2.) The Perfect Match 3.) Waiting on You 4.) In Your Dreams My Thoughts:  I don't usually read a lot of chick lit/romance type books but over the summer, I just really wanted to do some nice fluffy reading.  I kept hearing out awesome this series was so I decided to check it out.  OMG.  This series is the absolute best!  The characters are wonderful and the stories are each fun and romantic in their own right.   The stories focus on the Holland family, their unmarried members and unmarried friends.  I love that all the characters are so normal; the woman aren't Barbie dolls and they all have their own unique set of problems and idiosyncracies.  Because they are so normal, they are incredibly relatable.  There are also a ton of funny one liners and some of the characters are just plain hilarious (Prudence is the best!). All of the books are a little predictable/formulaic and all have a happy ending but I think that was what made them so e

Hey y'all!  I'm linking up with Bookish (And Not So Bookish) Thoughts over at Bookishly Boisterous again.   1.) Our library book sale was last weekend and I bought these Baby Sitter's Club book for 50 cents each.  Yes, I'm already hoarding books for my two year old to read when she's older. 2.) I also may have just bought a couple of the Russian language Harry Potter books on ebay.  I read the first two books in Russian and now would like to try continuing to read them to practice my Russian.  We'll see how that goes.  They were about half the price that I paid for each of the first two so it was pretty good deal. 3.) I don't know what my problem is but I haven't finished a book in like a week.  I like the books I'm reading right now, I just don't feel compelled to read. 4.) We went out for some amazing Chinese food last week and this was my fortune. I sincerely hope it comes true.  I desperately want to travel the world. 5.)

From Goodreads:  At 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers-reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World. Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the people who lived it-until now. Of the millions of words written about this wrenching day, most were told from the outside looking in. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn have taken the opposite-and far more revealing-approach. Reported from the perspectives of those inside the towers, 102 Minutes captures the little-known stories of ordinary people who took extraordinary steps to save themselves and others. Beyond this stirring panorama stands investigative reporting of the first rank. An astounding number of people actually survived the plane impacts but were unable to escape, and the authors raise hard questions about building safety and tragic flaws in New York's emergency preparedn