This book was just too cute. Boo is a very small ghost and as such has had a hard time scaring someone. It took them longer to get to school. It took them longer and it was harder to do things like shut doors. To get their hunting license, they have to scare someone and who Boo finally scares is just such a gorgeous read. This book was fun, it’s a great spooky story for the youngest kids. It could be read during Halloween, before, after, or just because. This book just works and should be a staple in your hunting collection 

 

Any book that takes something from being smaller than a dog to turning me into Stardust is a win in my book. This book is a super simple explanation of what an atom is and what it makes up. The reader also gets a brief history lesson on where these come from. Which all in turn leads to humans being made of Stardust. I loved everything between the way the story is told and particularly the illustrations that make me think of the old 60s and 70s educational shorts like what you might find on the Disney Channel. 

 

This book has very few pages but lots of words. It starts with a mommy bear and a baby bear and the baby’s asking questions. The baby tells us everything they already know but then ask mommy when they don’t know something. These answers get long and while accurate a bit boring. This book wasn’t bad but it’s not something to add to my collection 

 

I love the cover of this book but that is all. I went into this book completely blind not realizing you need just the basics of Christian knowledge to the creation story. God inventing earth, then the people taking advantage of it by eating from the tree, and then his son is born to save everybody.  His son’s killed by the dragon put in a cave to be resurrected.  You know the story. Mostly I consider this a shame because I love the artwork. I was annoyed not knowing this was religious in nature. It just seems sneaky because at no point in time do, they acknowledge anything religious until the last page where there is more information about the Bible. 

 I am thoroughly entranced and swimming in the world building.  Here human women lay eggs, and the wolves change gender every moon cycle until on their 18th birthday. They set their gender with an egg from the humans.  Intrigued yet? The Child of the wolf king wants to set as a girl, but her father needs her to set as a boy to take over ruling the kingdom.  She set off with her boyfriend, a human, to make her own life, or to at least wait out her 18th birthday and make the choice for herself.  Meanwhile in the land of humans, egg laying goes on, but if you do something against one of their laws, they kill you, then bring you back as a type of zombie called Immortui.  They make great pack beasts, but die if they get to far from the swamp.  This book was way too short.  It just wet my whistle of a grand adventure.  For some reason it gives me vibes of Jim Hensen with Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, but that could just be the enormous bugs everyone rides.  I want more of this story, and I really want this turned into a cartoon that I can watch.  It could be the Last Unicorn of this generation. 

 

This is the first time I have ever listened to Sandra Brown.  I have loved her books for years but have not been able to keep up with the new stuff.  So, this was a nice return to her story telling. 

 

Zach is an ex pro football player.  Kate is a member of the Attorney General’s office, and she is seeking out Zack for one thing:  to turn his ex-wife’s life support off.  Rebecca has been surviving in a special facility after a traumatic brain injury for four years.  Until the incident, Zach had no idea he was still the person who held the power over medical decisions.  He and Rebecca had been divorced for 5 years. Rebecca’s condition is no accident.  Eban was sentenced to prison for his part in Rebecca’s condition, but has just been released early.  Eban comes from an extremely wealthy family.  When he was released, he was given back his passports and his rights to move around as he sees fit. 

 

Kate knows Eban should not be out.  He will just continue to do what he did to Rebecca to others.  But she can not retry him for battery, or anything thing else.  Double Jeopardy.  However, there are statues of limitations for murder, and since Rebecca’s current condition was caused by Eban and his “friends” when she dies, Eban can be tried for murder.  

 

This book was highly interesting.  Was it Sandra’s best?  No, but I still enjoyed the ride of the story.  The end did drag on a little, and parts of it pissed me off, but overall it was an entertaining listen.  I really liked the audiobook narrator.  They had the perfect rasp to their voice for really make it feel like Zach was telling this story.  But at the same time, that rasp could be grating on the ears if one listened to it too loud, for example in the car with all the windows down.  I now have an urge to grab audios of the other Sandra Brown books I have missed over the year.  

 

This is so sweet it gives me a tooth ache.  Ray is just a girl sitting in a café wishing for romance.  She is a Council intern as has been her dream for years.  But she finds herself frequently stopping by a bakery where the treats are baked with spells.  She is drawn to the woman who runs the place and the magic she can weave.  There she meets Laurie, an up-and-coming musician who works for his aunt at the bakery while paying his dues.  Here the romance is not just baked in the scones, it develops between these two in a slow and subtle way.  But, as with any good romance, there are complications.  Laurie can not fly.  He has been scared of heights since his parents’ disappearance.  Ray, as a council intern has her work memory wiped daily.  And if she becomes a full council member she will be wiped from the memories of her friends and family until such time as she is no longer a council member.  This is a very unique romance, and a great format with fantastic illustrations.  I was a bit sad to see the story end, but it ended in a place of love and hope that just leaves the reader with a smile on their face. 

 

This was such a fun and wild ride.  The Looniland is a realm of 2 “people”: the ugly and the pretty.  The pretty get to laze the day away and the ugly do all the work.  We come into the story with the Mayor Granny sending her best ugly to figure out what happened with the lighting, and then take that “thing” to the mountain and drop it in the burning pit.  But the entire journey is a comedy of errors.  While uglies are doing all the work, the pretties are being zombified by some illness to which the uglies have immunity.  This book contains 3 stories that all interconnect.  They are funny, and heartfelt, and just a joy to read.  The illustrations are bright and colorful.  The story at times seems long, but that is because there is so much dialog between the characters.  Way more dialogue then usually seen in a graphic novel.  Overall, I loved this story, and I want more or it.  Also, I would really like to see this animated. 

 

I was told this was a thrilling tale of horror.  Where?  I didn’t see it in the 34% of the audiobook I listened to.  Laurel Early grew up in a small tobacco growing town.  She escaped town to attend a university in the big city of Ohio but dropped out for bad grades.  In her free times she likes to taxidermy.  This book took so much time in the set up.  We had to find out about her friends, her hobby, her uncle, and her bones.  It finally got interesting when she finds her old taxidermy castoff bones in a pool of fresh blood, but that interesting point was followed by more dullness.  Then there is the car accident and chase by the weird blood and bone creature that even a gun will not stop, but now everyone thinks she is crazy and making it up.  The DNF point for me was on the next meeting with the creature.  The “I want to be in you, eat you, devour you from the inside.”  I had to listen twice.  And I was done.  I love the Nine Inch Nail song, where these lyrics feel like they were taken from, but I was not enjoying this story.  It wasn’t horror or thriller enough.  It was boring, then it was just “Nope”. 

 

I really wanted to like this.  The concept was interesting.  It is a bit reminiscent of the Superman origins: found as a baby with abilities they can not control.  The kid can shape shift and not being able to control it made for some interesting scenes, but I just kept feeling sorry for the main character.  And it took the enjoyment of this book away.  I DNFed at 44%