Early Reader Bedtime Story: Pete the Cat's Family Road Trip by James Dean & Kimberly Dean

 

Read for: Borrowed Books

Synopsis: "Pete the Cat and his family go on a cross-country adventure in this Level 1 I Can Read tale from New York Times bestselling creators Kimberly and James Dean!

Pete the Cat and his family are ready explore all the many wonderful American landmarks on their fun family road trip! They visit many famous sights, including Niagara Falls, New Orleans, Savannah, and more.

Of course, no true road trip is complete without a flat tire! But the Cat family isn't going to let a small setback get in the way of fun...

Pete the Cat's Family Road Trip is a Level I Can Read book, complete with original illustrations from the creators of Pete the Cat, Kimberly and James Dean, and is perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences."

My Review: Nothing like a road trip book for the summer. We aren't going on any vacations this year, like pretty much everyone else. So why not go on a virtual road trip with Pete the Cat and his family. I like how they visited a lot of different famous sites to see throughout the country. Even though the illustration style is a little funky, it was still very easy to identify the various locations. The sentences were easy to read with lots of sight words and repetition for those young readers. The print is also large and bold but not overwhelming with the amount of text. This is a great book to share with young ones this summer.

My Rating: You can never go wrong with Pete the Cat books, they are always engaging and fun, yet easy to read.  This was a great cross country adventure full of famous sites to see and some not so famous. I give this one a rating of Four Paws!

Good Night! Sweet Dreams!

Review of Happy & You Know It by Laura Hawkin

 

Read for: Recently Added

Synopsis: "A dark, witty page-turner set around a group of wealthy mothers and the young musician who takes a job singing to their babies and finds herself pulled into their glamorous lives and dangerous secrets….

After her former band shot to superstardom without her, Claire reluctantly agrees to a gig as a playgroup musician for overprivileged infants on New York’s Park Avenue. Claire is surprised to discover that she is smitten with her new employers, a welcoming clique of wellness addicts with impossibly shiny hair, who whirl from juice cleanse to overpriced miracle vitamins to spin class with limitless energy.

There is perfect hostess Whitney who is on the brink of social-media stardom and just needs to find a way to keep her perfect life from falling apart. Caustically funny, recent stay-at-home mom Amara who is struggling to embrace her new identity. And old money, veteran mom Gwen who never misses an opportunity to dole out parenting advice. But as Claire grows closer to the cool women who pay her bills, she uncovers secrets and betrayals that no amount of activated charcoal can fix.

Filled with humor and shocking twists, Happy and You Know It is a brilliant take on motherhood—exposing it as yet another way for society to pass judgment on women—while also exploring the baffling magnetism of curated social-media lives that are designed to make us feel unworthy. But, ultimately, this dazzling novel celebrates the unlikely bonds that form, and the power that can be unlocked, when a group of very different women is thrown together when each is at her most vulnerable."

My Review: I picked this up as an extra from Book of the Month not knowing much about it. I was kind of expecting a book I could laugh during. It ended up being a lot more serious than I was expecting. There were definitely some funny moments and I did love Amara's dark humor, but it tackled much harder issues than just judgmental mommy groups or elitist society. I did enjoy how the moms in the group are presented as so perfect, but the further we dive into the story, the more flaws we see. It did a great job of showing how anyone can project that flawless, perfect life image (especially on social media) but the truth is we all have our struggles, some darker than others. I really did like the almost fly on the wall view this story takes on but it was definitely missing a little something for me.

My Rating: While it wasn't quite what  I was expecting it was still a interesting and entertaining read.  A nice reminder that social media perfect life isn't real and there is no point in comparing my parenting to those images I see online.  I give it a rating of Three Paws.

Top 10 Tuesday: Old Favorites without a Review

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.  It is now hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, and you can find the list of topics on her page HERE.

It has been a few weeks since I last did a Top 10 Tuesday, and this week's topic is one that I couldn't pass up.  We are talking about books that we enjoyed but haven't reviewed.  I have been reviewing books on here and Goodreads for 10 years now and I think have have done a pretty good job of going back and re-reading and reviewing some of my favorite books but there are definitely some still waiting.

Most of the books on my list are books I read in school that really made an impact on me, but that I just haven't gotten around to re-reading. 

 

 

And then there was a time when I was embarrassed by my love for Adult Romance and didn't feel like I should be talking about it, especially the more explicit ones (needless to say I got over that). 

 

So there are a few books that I really enjoyed but never got a review up.  I do hope to go back and try to re-read some of them and post updated reviews at some point.

Do you have books missing reviews? Do you plan on going back and adding reviews or do you feel they are best left with the memory of them?

Monday Reading List

It is Monday again, and time to update with what I read last week, what I am currently reading and what to look forward to next week.

Reviews Posted Last Week:

Links will take you to my review

Book of Dragons Edited by Jonathan Strahan

Her Second Chance Cowboy by Makenna Lee

Chicken on Vacation by Adam Lehrhaupt (Early Reader Bedtime Story)

Flirtasaurus by Erin Mallon (Date Night/After Dark)

 Books Finished Last Week:

Reviews will be posted at a later date

Tea Dragon Tapestry

Tanks Forever Home

The Menu

Books Can be Deceiving

Due or Die

Currently Reading:

You Can't F*ck Up Your Kids by Lindsay Powers - Print - on page 98 of 320
The Ranger of Marzanna by Jon Skovron - print/ebook - on page 134 of 528
Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien - print - on page 109 of 328

Fable by Adrienne Young - ebook - on page 108 of  368

Pages Read/ Time Listened
602:10 Hours Listened (14:36 listened this week)
18,017 Pages Read (490 this week)

Books Added to Shelves Recently: TBR
The Eyes of Tamburah (gift)
The Wolf in the Whale
~~~~~~~~~~March Birthday Waiver Books ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rain Dragon Rescue
The Order of the Unicorn
#Frankenstein
All the Wandering Light
Life on the Leash
Phoenix Unbound
You Can't F*ck Up Your Kids  (gift)
Mary Shelley Monster Hunter Vol. 1
The Caged Queen
The Mum Who'd Had Enough
The Voyage to Magical North
I Needed a Viking
The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~End Birthday Waiver~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Red Hood (gift)
Scavenge the Stars
Beefcakes
Hades & Persephone
Red, White & Royal Blue
Dark Skies
No Country for Old Gnomes (gift)
About That Kiss
The Ranger of Marzanna
A Heart of Blood and Ashes (gift)
The Girl and the Stars
A Choir of Lies
Loving Cara
This Will Kill That
Woven in Moonlight
Girl of Fire & Thorns (gift)
Murder Past Due
Books Can Be Deceiving - READ
Due or Die - READ
Book Line and Sinker
Apple Cider Slaying
All My Loving
Fury of a Phoenix
Homicide in Hardcover (gift)
Unravel the Dusk
Ruthless Gods
Mexican Gothic
Happy and You Know It - READ
Flirtasaurus - READ
At Wolf Ranch (gift)

A Touch of Stone and Snow (gift)
Bookish and the Beast

A Thief Among the Trees

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


This last week was a much better reading week than those previously. I don't know if it is because I am finally catching up on everything at work and home so have more time, or maybe am just in a better mood because of it. Or maybe it is just because I am really enjoying the books I have been picking up!  I have definitely been more focused on ARCs this past week, and expect to see a lot of those reviews coming up on the blog soon.   

Surprise, Tome Topple also started over the weekend, and once again I am unprepared.  I haven't even put together a TBR for this round.  I do plan to read at least 3 books. I need to finish Ranger of Marzanna, I also want to read A Heart of Blood and Ash and then either Summer Dragon or The Phoenix Empress. But first I need to finish a couple of other books that I have already started.