Sunday Post - 02/16/25

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

We've had some difficulty in Q3 with getting into a routine without interruption. Monday, Little Boy had to go to the doctor for an ear check. He does have an ear infection in his left ear. He's had enough infections for me to feel pretty confident in knowing when he has one. Tuesday, my dad had shoulder surgery. He tore the ligaments that attach to his rotator cuff. The doctor said it was worse than they could see on the MRI. I met my mom when they got home to help her get him from the car to the house. We also ran his prescription to the pharmacy for them. Wednesday was normal, and Thursday as well. Thursday, we had co-op, and then I had to bake and decorate cookies for Little Boy's Valentine's Day party. Friday was a good day, but a little challenging because Big Boy just wanted to eat candy and wasn't in the mood for school. Saturday, Big Boy had baseball evaluations. Big Girl's age only has 1 team in our league so there's no need for evaluations. And Little Boy is playing t-ball this year, but he will just be assigned a team. I'm still in a bit of an Onyx Storm funk. I ended up re-reading Fourth Wing, which wasn't in my original plans. But I'm so glad that I did. It's worth a re-read. I'll jump into Iron Flame soon, but I need to read something for review first.

THE PAST WEEK

Monday: Review of Running Wild (Wild, # 3) by KA Tucker (4 Stars)
Wednesday: Can't Wait for The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood & Ash, # 6) by Jennifer L Armentrout
Friday: Homeschool Friday - The Wonder of Creation

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: No blog posts - Happy President's Day (US)
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday?
Wednesday: Can't Wait Wednesday?
Thursday: Review of There Goes the Groom (Romance of Rank, # 3) by Esther Hatch
Friday: Homeschool Friday - The Candymakers

NEW BOOKS:

No new books this week.

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!

Homeschool Friday - The Wonder of Creation

Homeschool Friday is a feature here at Somewhere Only We Know that showcases books my family reads during homeschool and provides a mini-review/review for each.

The Wonder of Creation: 100 More Devotions About God and Science

By: Louie Giglio

Publication: November 16, 2021 by Tommy Nelson

208 pages

Genre: Children's, Christian, Devotion, Science

Source: Personal Library

( Goodreads | Amazon **Currently on sale** )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--In this captivating follow-up to the bestselling kids' devotionals Indescribable and How Great Is Our God, founder of the Passion movement Louie Giglio offers more mind-blowing, faith-building scientific facts and biblical truths about the wonder of God's creation.

In this book, children will find new delight in God's creativity with 100 devotions that explore:

Animals: from honeyguide birds to flying snakes to white rhinos
Space: from black holes to volcanic moons to gamma-ray bursts
People: from optical illusions to brain freezes to our immune systems
Earth: from rainbow rivers to blue lava to flowing glaciers
And much, much more!

Like the other books, Indescribable and How Great Is Our God, The Wonder of Creation has a Scripture, a scientific topic which is in turn related back to God, a short prayer, and a related fact concerning the topic. The topics are related to space, Earth, people, and animals. When I finished The Wonder of Creation, I thought there were fewer real photographs used in comparison with How Great is Our God. I didn't go back to count them, but The Wonder of Creation does include a mix of real photographs and unrealistic graphics. My kids asked to see the photo a few times on a topic, but one wasn't always included. So, it's not necessarily a bad thing, yet still noticeable.

My kids are ages 9, 7, and 3 at the time of writing this review. The three-year-old didn't usually read this with us, but we typically read one of the topics every other night before bed. Some days, my kids were so excited to hear the topic, and other days, not very much. But we've been doing a devotion at bedtime for so long that there's no real complaining about it. The kids just know that's what we're going to do.

As always, theology is something that concerns me when looking for devotions. I don't have time to create lessons and devotions from scratch, but I want to ensure I'm teaching truth to them directly from the Bible. The Wonder of Creation had only one topic that I can remember which I edited while reading. And that wasn't anything wrong, I just added in a piece that often gets left out of the watered-down message of believing only. So as for theology, I highly recommend this book.

Similar to our experience with the previous two books, what we might be going through in life is occasionally related to the topic from The Wonder of Creation. But this only happened a few times. I can't credit or blame the book for that. God deserves the credit for that any time it occurs.

The Wonder of Creation is a great option for doing devotions with your child(ren). The topics are short enough not to lose a child's attention, but I love how the content always brings things back to God and our relationship with Him. I continue to see the fruit of regular conversation about God creating the world and how He works in our daily lives, in my children, and in my home. The Wonder of Creation gets 5 Stars. Have you read The Wonder of Creation? What did you think? Let me know!

Can't Wait for The Primal of Blood and Bone

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released as well. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. Find out more here.

The Primal of Blood and Bone (Blood & Ash, # 6)

By: Jennifer L Armentrout

Expected Publication: June 10, 2025 by Blue Box Press

640 pages

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Vampires, Werewolves

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--In the shadows and flames, Primals will fall…

And from the blood and ash, new gods will rise.

In the thrilling penultimate chapter of the viral BLOOD AND ASH series by #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout, Poppy and Casteel face their most perilous challenges yet as old enemies rise and ancient powers stir from their slumber.

Bound by love but driven by destiny, they must navigate a world on the brink of devastation—where every choice has deadly consequences. With their bond tested and their future hanging in the balance, the fate of the realm rests on the strength of their hearts and the power of the Deminyen.

What are you guys waiting on this week? Let me know!

Running Wild - Review

Running Wild (The Simple Wild, # 3)

By: KA Tucker

Publication: January 25, 2022 by K.A. Tucker

370 pages

Genre: Adult, Contemporary

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate link. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--Veterinarian Marie Lehr knows unrequited love all too well after pining for her best friend, only to watch him marry another woman. It’s a mistake she will never make again, especially not when she can practically hear the clock ticking on her childbearing years.

The trouble is, she can’t seem to find anyone who appeals to her even a fraction as much as that burly bush pilot did. Competitive musher Tyler Brady certainly doesn’t, especially not after the heated altercation with the handsome but arrogant, spiteful man.

Or so she thinks.

While volunteering at the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, Marie discovers that first impressions may have been false, and her attraction to Tyler is very real. But his heart belongs to someone else, leaving him with nothing to offer but friendship. Marie’s been down this road before and knows how that ends. Yet, no matter how hard she works to keep from falling for Tyler, it seems she’s doomed to follow her own trail once again.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Simple Wild comes the story of a woman at a crossroads in her life, struggling between the safe route and the one that will only lead to more heartbreak.

Oh man, I did not like Marie in the previous books. Having a little too much personal experience with women who want to be friends with married men yet are actually in love with them (or have a crush on them), I'm not a fan of this at all. As a matter of fact, I have a strong stance on how much men and women can be friends when one of them is married. It wouldn't be a popular stance, but protecting my marriage is more important to me than any other friendship could ever be. So I would have been happy for Marie to fall off the face of the book world.

Yet I also knew I would soften to her if I were in her head. I put off reading her book because I wanted to stay mad at her for existing and for daring to have feelings for Jonah. Thankfully, in most of this book, Marie is past her feelings for Jonah. She sees what he has with Calla. And if anything, she's not jealous of Calla being with Jonah but of wanting what Calla and Jonah have together. She just wants to love someone and be loved in return. And she's beginning to feel like it is impossible. Being in rural Alaska, her choices are slim. Not to mention, the amount of time she dedicates to her business doesn't allow for much time to socialize. 

Marie gets a tip that a new musher has moved into the area and might be mistreating his dogs. She enters his property illegally to accuse him of animal abuse. Unsurprisingly, Tyler doesn't take kindly to the accusations, stated or implied. Tyler is a widow, and his wife's younger brother lives with him. Everything he knows about mushing comes from his wife and her family. He plans to do the Idatrod Sled Dog race in honor of his wife, and he doesn't appreciate people storming onto his property and accusing him of mistreating his dogs.

Of course, Marie realizes she's wrong about her accusations, and it doesn't take her long to catch feelings for Tyler. Unfortunately, Tyle isn't quite emotionally available at first. And Marie has had her fill of emotionally unavailable men. She doesn't see the point in pursuing something that is going nowhere. And I felt for her in this respect. I was proud of her for holding her ground. But yet, I was rooting for her and Tyler at the same time.

Running Wild did exactly what I expected it to do. I softened towards Marie once I could read her thoughts and emotions. I wanted to see her get her happily ever after because she was so, so lonely. Running Wild gets 4 Stars. Have you read Running Wild? What did you think? Let me know!

Sunday Post - 02/09/25

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ The Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog.

I started off the week still sickly from a sinus infection. I don't remember much about Monday. Tuesday, we normally spend the day with my parents, but my dad is having surgery this coming Tuesday and we didn't wnat to risk him getting the sickness that we were dealing with. I did have to do grocery pick up Tuesday afternoon and get our dog's flea/tick/heartworm medication from the vet. Tuesday evening, the big kids had belt ceremony. They both earned their green belts in Taekwondo. Wednesday, I ended up keeping Little Boy home from school because he was coughing worse. And it gave me a little more chance to rest too. We found out on Monday or Tuesday that Husband's cousin died suddenly of an aortic aneurysm. Thursday, we had a field trip in Birmingham at the McWayne Center with our co-op. That was a lot of fun. We were there from about 10 am until 2 pm. Thursday evening we went to the visitation for Husband's cousin. I've never seen so many people at a visitation before. The line was out of the church sanctuary, down a few hallways, and back, and then all the way out of the door to the outside. We stood in line for over 2 hours to see the immediate family. Friday we had a normal school day, but it felt like a ping pong match between all three kids against me at one time. I ended the day exhausted and may have yelled a time or two which I really try hard not to do. Husband took a half day off work to go with his mom to the funeral. Saturday, we had a girl's afternoon at a friend's house playing cards. I took Big Girl with me to play with a couple of other little girls.

THE PAST WEEK

Monday: DNF Review of The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith
Tuesday: Ten Book Releases I Didn't Get to in 2024
Wednesday: Can't Wait for We Met Like This by Kasie West
Friday: Homeschool Friday - Teeth Are Not for Biting

UPCOMING THIS WEEK:

Monday: Review of Running Wild (The Simple Wild, # 3) by KA Tucker
Tuesday: Top Ten Tuesday?
Wednesday: Can't Wait Wednesday?
Friday: Homeschool Friday - The Wonder of Creation

NEW BOOKS:

A Soul of Ash and Blood (Ash and Blood, # 5)

By: Jennifer L Armentrout

Publication: July 18, 2023 by Blue Box Press

712 pages

Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Vampire, Werewolves

Source: Borrowed from e-Library

( Goodreads | Amazon )

*Note: The above link to Amazon is an affiliate links. Affiliate links support giveaways for Somewhere Only We Know readers.

Goodreads description--TA great primal power has risen. The Queen of Flesh and Fire has become the Primal of Blood and Bone—the true Primal of Life and Death. And the battle Casteel, Poppy, and their allies have been fighting has only just begun. Gods are awakening across Iliseeum and the mortal realm, readying for the war to come.

But when Poppy falls into stasis, Cas faces the very real possibility that the dire, unexpected consequences of what she is becoming could take her away from him. Cas is given some advice, though—something he plans to cling to as he waits to see her beautiful eyes open once more: Talk to her.

And so, he does. He reminds Poppy how their journey began, revealing things about himself that only Kieran knows in the process. But it’s anybody’s guess what she’ll wake to or exactly how much of the realm and Cas will have changed when she does.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout revisits Poppy and Casteel’s epic love story in the next installment of the Blood and Ash series. But this time, Hawke gets to tell the tale.

That's it for my shelves and recaps of my past and upcoming week. What did you add to your shelves this week? Any bookish news you want to talk about? Let me know!