Archive | March 2016

Her Holiday Family… a book review

From a fantastic young adult novel to a light Christian based romance. Her Holiday Family by Ruth Logan Herne is a story to enjoy on a quiet afternoon. Dealing with family rifts is never simple, especially when it comes out of nowhere and blinds you. When forgiveness is slow to come and life an uphill battle love is rarely at the front of one’s mind. Neither is reconnecting with someone tied to a difficult time long past.

There are many elements in this story… a broken family, sudden death, arson, foster children and adoption, cancer… Both of the main characters are coming from a place of pain and heart ache. One has lost both her parents and her hard earned business, the other faces losing his father and the reality of his culpability (or lack there was) to an incident that has haunted him since his youth.

There is a definite mystery, a strong romantic element and, of course, a lovely dose of Christmas spirit. Based in Kirkwood Lake (and fifth in the Kirkland Lake series), Tina Martinelli and Max Campbell have a history unresolved and a future unplanned. Tina is in Kirkwood Lake only as long as it takes for her to sort out her burnt out cafe and help out the Campbell family while the patriarch deals with a severe return of his cancer. Max is back from his time in the army to do the same. The big question is who will stay and will they find peace, faith and love?

I really enjoyed this novel. Though I found some of the emotional strife a little bit self imposed on the characters (as indeed it turns out some of it is!). A nice seasonal read if you are looking for some Christmas cheer!22557429._UY475_SS475_

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children… a book review

It is RARE that I will EVER give the kids an extended lunch or a half day but this was the book to do it! Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs was one of those books. A young adult book, this fantasy utilizes old found photographs combined with a compelling story and characters you get to see to believe. There are so many haunting elements to this story… an abandoned orphanage… a mysterious island… tragedies both fresh and long gone… harking back to the second world war in fact! And to be faced with images that illustrate the story as if they were taken by someone for the story instead of the story written around… eerie and marvelous.

I don’t want to share too much, and really, this is a book to be read without knowing much at all to get the full impact… but though the main character (Jacob) is a teenage boy and it is ALL through his point of view I was totally sucked into the story from the very first page. 

Jacob’s grandfather was around his age during the second world war, he was sent away by his parents to an island in Wales as they were Polish Jews. His stories from his time on the island are mysterious and magical… and to Jacob, completely unbelievable. That is, until tragedy hits the family and Jacob begins his adventure to find out the truth. This leads him right to Miss Peregrine’s orphanage. 

The Images Ransom Riggs uses are haunting, sweet, mysterious, confusing, false looking, spooky… perfect. After I read the story I HAD to go through and glance at them again. The story itself was gripping, and I found myself sometimes reading character descriptions multiple times as Jacob comes across more and more peculiar individuals.

I have already put a request on book two – Hollow City and once I receive that one plan to request the third book… Library of Souls. Tim Burton IS coming out with a movie for this book (this is part of why a friend brought it to my attention), but my capacity for scary is much higher in books than in movies… so we shall see!

While I will not be letting the twins read this quite yet, it is definitely a book I will want to have them read in the future. You do need to have some knowledge of the second world war to truly understand the grandfather and the situations the orphanage was in, but other than that… there is a fantastic world of amazingly peculiar children in these pages! You really MUST check it out! ???????????????????????????????

This entry was posted on 12/03/2016, in Uncategorized. 7 Comments

Just A Glimpse More of July

You can see the original post HERE, but I had overflow of the fun… duh! When do I not? Oh well, enjoy the look back at our summer of 2015 (that just does not roll of the tongue like the summer of ’69).DSCN0836

Golden Bamboo Lemur

Golden Bamboo Lemur

Sifaka Lemur

Sifaka Lemur

Madagascar. Thank you Wild Kratts for being AWESOME

Madagascar. Thank you Wild Kratts for being AWESOME

Hanging with the Novak boys

Hanging with the Novak boys

Lucky library finds from their rack of books no longer in circulation.

Lucky library finds from their rack of books no longer in circulation.

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Jeffrey!

Jeffrey!

Emanuel and Zander

Emanuel and Zander

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Snoopy!

Snoopy!

the beginning of the rest of Alex's birthday

the beginning of the rest of Alex’s birthday

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more of Aidan's birthday

more of Aidan’s birthday

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And now for the ones off the cell phone!

Making Donuts with Nana!

Making Donuts with Nana!

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Goofing around at the Novak's

Goofing around at the Novak’s

Look who got their bracelet to access all pools!

Look who got their bracelet to access all pools!

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Emanuel's third place Fair winner

Emanuel’s third place Fair winner

Trying on Baba's old uniform jacket

Trying on Baba’s old uniform jacket

IMG_20150731_152032IMAG0309And now for my two favourites from the month!DSCN0803

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