And now for a hunt on the kindle to see what I downloaded randomly as a free book. And the winner is… the first book of the Tassamara Book series, A Gift of Ghosts by Sarah Wynde. I am telling you right off the bat, a GREAT book. Romance, the supernatural, engaging characters, a bit of mystery. This book has it all in spades. I honestly sat down with this one, not remembering picking it up and proceeded to set down my crochet project and read the night away! 

Let’s start off with the main character’s name… Akira… love that. The fact that she is a genius physicist with what she calls a “quirk”, the ability to talk to ghosts (not the dead JUST ghosts). After writing up a small paper in a magazine in regards to spirit energy her credibility and her current job are on the way out. Enter Zane, a nondescript office room and a job offer draped in secrecy and the unknown. What does she do but take it and head out to Tassamara:

“In Tassamara, believing in six impossible things before breakfast is taken for granted.”

I will warn you, there is one semi graphic sex scene that is handled with humour, science and romance. And the relationships both romantic and platonic are hilarious and totally grow on you. The potential for further stories is blatantly obvious just with the core characters in this first installment. You cannot help but want to know more about the main family – the Latimers, but the town and the people in it as well. 

I love Akira’s internal dialogue and her logical thought. She has a sense of humour and a fragility that is both entertaining and endearing. And Zane is hilarious as are the ghosts around them. 

This book feels well thought out and researched. The characters have depth and plot drug me right on in. I am definitely going to work to get my hands on further volumes! I dare you to NOT get so invested in the story and the characters that you don’t just read on into the evening! 

Now for a change of pace. Ghost Ship by P.J. Alderman is a fun murder mystery. In fact multiple mysteries are solved as the main character Jordan also delves into the mysterious death of a ghost from times long past. This is the second book in the Port Chatham Mystery series.

Jordan is newly moved to the seaside town of Port Chatham in Washington State. With this move has come a large house she is renovating and a bunch of resident ghosts only Jordan seems to be able to see. Added to this already interesting character list is the resident hotty and pub owner Jase, close friend and Sheriff Darcy and the newest corpse… womanizer Holt Stillwell.

What I love about this series is that it alternates between the contemporary and historical mysteries. You not only get to know Jordan and her friends and townsfolk but the ghosts and their community. There is a rather interesting look into the opium trade of the 1890’s that connects to the murder in the current day.

The setting is lovely, characters vibrant and the romance a definite slow burn. I really enjoyed the fact that the book is not centered on people disbelieving the ability to see ghosts… in fact no one rails against it as hard as the woman herself! The mysteries were interesting right up until the end. I would definitely suggest this book and potentially this series to anyone who loves ghosts with their mysteries. I look forward to reading the first in this series as well as continuing on with the rest.

October 22-24

We are onto our next big countdown – HALLOWEEN! Where has the year gone??? First Halloween, then Thanksgiving (American) and then CHRISTMAS! I am so not ready! We started our day with a gift… Gammie has already started sending the Christmas presents to hide until THE DAY and included in the boxes have been a few extras… I think we opened a couple the week before. But this one was a request item… a tiny ring-tailed lemur. Only our VERY FAVOURITE of all the animals really. This one was a dog toy so Echo is totally enamoured with it… it SQUEAKS!

With our regular morning routine accomplished Nana, myself and the girls had a special errand to accomplish. The weather has of course changed over to fall and sandals are out. Both girls have grown and honestly Echo has never had a true pair of sneakers… so off we were to find some! Kohl’s had a 30% off coupon and Nana was on a mission. Two stores later and a worn out Echo and we were MORE than successful. Not only did we find adorable LIGHT UP shoes for each but we ALSO found coats for the cousins AND long sleeved MINECRAFT themed shirts for the boys! Add to that lunch at McDonald’s and our girly time was a total success!!! Thank you Nana!!! (Oh, did I mention… matching adorable 3 piece girly outfits for the ladies themselves!)

With milk

Matching!

Gavin actually requested a special mini project for himself – pictures, video and (my input) a short story about ring-tailed lemurs. We watched a National Geographic video.

And Globalzoo’s video simply titled The Ring-Tailed Lemur.

Our colouring page could be found on HonkingDonkey (what a name!!) HERE. I love it when they take initiative and WANT to do something a little unique and interesting to them personally.

We hit midweek with not too much drama. Special movie time though – Monsters Vs. Aliens.

And a science project with Daddy dealing with oil and water and why polar bears are not cold! Again spot the secondary parental teacher!!!

Well sort of out of screen

There was even time for some play time, chaotic and totally us!

BUT even more important… KEN TURNED 36!!! Since I am on a total spending freeze there was no present buying… so the kids and I wrote stories, drew pictures and yours truly wrote a letter for him which we made into a book. I do love handmade creations and the words in that book came from all of us to him with love.

Happy Birthday Ken!

After celebrating a very special birthday it was time to move onto a big completion… our Egypt unit made its way (finally) onto the poster. We worked together and did our very best to showcase our Ancient Egypt fun! Of course I have a reference blog entry that you can check out HERE.

We ended our day with making white paint footprints we will later make into ghostly images.

I am well pleased with our progress in almost everything! We have our ups and downs but if I can look  back and recount these positive moments I KNOW we are doing it right!!!!