June Book Review

Well - I read eight books this month. EIGHT! I cannot believe that I actually read that many books, but I discovered some books sitting in my "to be read" list on Audible & I "read" those while I was working & driving to & fro! I hope you enjoy my review of my June books! 

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston: The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she's given a name & location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town & the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Summers. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.

Evie isn't privy to Mr. Smith's real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, & she's starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can't make any mistakes - especially after what happened last time. 

Because the one thing she's worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to - her real identity - just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past, while making sure she's there's still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn't be higher - but then, Evie always liked a challenge...

Rating: ⭐⭐of five: I will preface this by saying this was an audio book and maybe the twists & turns didn't quite pan out as well when I was listening versus reading? I just didn't find the characters likeable, so it was hard to root for them - if that makes sense? It was good - but just not great! 

Bad Luck Bridesmaid by Alison Rose Greenberg: It's official: Zoey Marks is the cursed bridesmaid that no engagement can survive. Ten years, three empire waist dresses & ZERO brides have walked down the aisle. 

After strike three, Zoey is left wondering if her own ambivalence towards marriage has rubbed off on those she loves. And when her building distrust of matrimony culminates in turning down a proposal from her perfect, All-American boyfriend, Rylan Harper III, she & Ryan are both left heartbroken, leaving Zoey to wonder: what is it exactly about tying the knot that makes her want to run in the opposite direction?

Enter Hannah Green: Zoey's best friend, who announces that she's marrying a guy she just (cue eye roll). At a castle. In gorgeous, romantic Ireland, where Rylan will be in attendance, & Zoey will be a bridesmaid. It'll be fine. Okay, the woman definition of fine (NOT FINE). 

Determined to turn her luck around, Zoey accepts her role & vows to get Hannah down the aisle - all the while praying her best friend's wedded bliss will allow her to embrace marriage & get Rylan back. But as the weekend goes on, Zoey is plagued with more questions than answers. Can you be a free spirit yet still want a certain future? Can you love & be loved on your own terms? And how DO you wrangle a bossy falcon into doing your bidding?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five: I really enjoyed this book; it was a $6.99 Amazon recommendation and while most people gave it less than four stars, I found Zoey's story really enjoyable. Her character was loveable and the storyline was realistic and amusing - I really loved reading this little book! 

You Deserve Good Gelato by Kacie Rose: Kacie decided to leave her life as a pro dance in New York City & move to Italy in 2021 - & she never looked back. Okay, that isn't strictly true...

In You Deserve Good Gelato, Kacie reflects on the pure terror of driving on Italian roads, the trials of speaking a new language (& getting it horribly, horribly wrong) & the genuine beauty of a slower pace of life, with all humor & heart. And by sharing her personal stories of life under the Tuscan sun, Kacie explains how travel is a privilege, why cultural differences are the coolest things in the world & how there's a positive you can take away from literally any situation. 

You Deserve Good Gelato will have you buying that ticket & embracing this big, beautiful world that we call home. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐of five: I enjoyed this book and it was a very quick and easy read! I love watching Kacie on social media & I loved hearing more about the Italian lifestyle; I loved visiting Italy back in 2018, and would love to return again one day! I would say it's technically a 3.5 out of five, but I can't choose half a star. 😏

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali: In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie & her mother to move to a tiny home in downtown. Lonely & bearing the brunt of her mother's endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. 

Luckily on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave & irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa's warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, & share their ambitions for becoming "lion women".

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie & her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls' school in Iran, Ellie's memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie's privileged world alters the course of both of their lives. 

Together, the two young women come of age & pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐of five: This book was just excellent! It shone a light on a part of the world that I honestly don't know that much about & provided insight into the lives of girls in Tehran as their country went from being more free to chained all over again. It was a really touching book as well, portraying a friendship that stood the test of a betrayal, time & distance. 

Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: In a land without magic, where the king rules with an iron hand, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She comes not to kill the king, but to win her freedom. If she defeats twenty-three killers, thieves & warriors in a competition, she is released from prison to serve as the King's champion. Her name is Celaena Sardothien. 

The Crown Prince will provoke her. The Captain of the Guard will protect her. But something evil dwells in the castle of glass - & it's there to kill. When her competitors start dying one by one, Celaena's fight for freedom becomes a fight for survival, & a desperate quest to root out the evil before it destroys her world.  

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐of five: This book was good... but it did take me until the last fifty pages or so to really get invested in the characters; it was definitely a slow build. I have to say that out of the three series that Maas has written, this one has been my least favorite - but I also have only read one of the seven books. I am interested in continuing the series because I hear it gets better as it goes. 

The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick: Not far from Luella & Effie Tildon's large family mansion in Inwood looms the House of Mercy, a work house for wayward girls. The sisters grow up under its shadow with the understanding that even as wealth young women, their freedoms come with limits. But when the sisters accidentally discover a shocking secret about their father, Luella, the brazen older sister, becomes emboldened to do as she pleases. 

But her rebellion comes with consequences, & one morning Luella is mysteriously gone. Effie suspects her father has made good on his threat to send Luella to the House of Mercy & hatches a plan to get herself committed to save her sister. But she made a miscalculation, & with no one to believe her story, Effie's escape from the House of Mercy seems impossible - unless she can trust an enigmatic girl named Mable. As their fates entwine, Mable & Effie must rely on each other & their tenuous friendship to survive. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five: This was a second audiobook this month & I really enjoyed this one! It's based on the very real House of Mercy that was once in NYC & the women who were imprisoned there. The story was very compelling; at times heart-breaking, and I was surprised to learn about the historical accuracy @ the end of the book. This was a great read!

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters: July 1962; a Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks late, four-year-old Ruthie, the family's youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister's disappearance for years to come. 

In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams & visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren't telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret. 

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐of five: The third audiobook of the month; this was another great read! The story goes back & forth between Joe & Norma (Ruthie) as they go through life after Ruthie's disappearance & how this moment changes both of their lives forever. This story was a pretty "quick" read & I really enjoyed this story. 

All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover: Quinn & Graham's perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes & secrets they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.

All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ of five: Oooh - this book hit really close to home. The couple are struggling to have a baby & in the midst of that struggle, they have lost sight of all the good in their marriage since they are missing that one thing - a baby. It was a really great read & a reminder to be thankful for a wonderful marriage & the many blessings you do have! 

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This may be the most I read in a month; I don't know if I can top this, ha-ha! But we shall see! With the year halfway through, I've read thirty-three books and I am twelve ahead of my goal to read forty-five books this year. Something tells me I'll meet my goal! 

Adios to June!

June has absolutely flown by - my goodness - are we really already (almost) halfway done with 2024? I truly cannot believe how quickly the first half of this year has gone by; it's been a pretty wonderful year so far, I cannot wait to see what the rest of the 2024 holds for us! I know we have some exciting things on the horizon - so let's close out June and the first half of the year. 

The house is continuing to go right up and we are loving watching each step of the process! Earlier this week we went to our (very early) pre-drywall walk through, where we; along with our realtor, reviewed everything that's been completed so far and made sure it all looked good to go. And it did! So they began hanging drywall on Thursday - and so, we were told that from Thursday we are looking at 45-60 days to completion! 

After a brutally hot week last week (temperatures in the mid-90's/heat indexes in the low 100's), the weather has cooled off a little bit this week and has actually been really nice! I've enjoyed sitting in my office with the windows open, letting the breezes from outside blow in and cool off my office. Now that the heat has subsided a little bit - we have also discovered that my parents DO have baby bunnies in the backyard again; these were maybe born a little later than normal. The little brown specks of fluff can be hard to see - but I did capture one little fella on Wednesday morning just chilling. 

Yesterday (Thursday) was the DSS Employee Picnic and everyone got to take the lunch hour and get the awesome catered lunch from Jimmy John's! There were subs, chips, cookies, two huge cakes, all the fixings and drinks - it was really awesome! Myself and some of my team members grabbed our plates and headed out to the little garden right across the street from the main office to sit in the shade and enjoy our picnic. A lot of people stayed indoors - but we wanted to take advantage of the gorgeous weather - and the gorgeous setting! 

June has been a good month - it's had it's hard days, but most of the days were good and some of them were even great. We are blessed indeed and so thankful for the beautiful life we've been given. I cannot wait for the second half of this year and all the blessings I pray that it brings. 

How is it Mid-June?

Wildly enough - we are on the back half of the month of June, which means that this year is already beyond the halfway point! I feel like in this year, the month of January was a long month because it was filled with a lot of pain & anxiety, but once February came around, the year really started to pick up and has just continued to speed along! 

Our house progress also continues to speed along! We went on Friday evening after dinner to peruse the house & see what had been done in the last week, and we were thrilled to see that plumbing and electric had been put into the house, & we have our very own front stoop now! It doesn't make for a huge amount of visual progress - but it's definitely just continuing to cruise right along, slowly turning into our soon to be home! 

Saturday morning, Ryan & I were up pretty early to go to Great Falls Park outside of DC; the park can fill up pretty quickly & once it does, they close the gates. We arrived shortly before 10 AM & while we had to park in the farthest parking lot out - we still easily found parking! It's been a few years - probably five or six - since I've been to Great Falls & Ryan had never been before. 

We walked along the North River trail in both directions - down towards the falls and later in the day, up toward the dam that is placed higher on the river. We also wandered down the Potowmack Canal Trail and the Matildaville Trail to take in the views & ruins of the once prosperous & lively town of Matildaville, located along the canals. 

The Potowmack Canal was the brainchild of none other than George Washington and was one of five portions a canal system that would make the Potomac River more easily navigable so that goods could be moved up & down the river. The area of Great Falls was the most challenging because the water drops eighty feet over the falls, so multiple canals had to be built to make use of the river's changing height & the ability to keep goods moving along the river. The canals were built in seventeen years & once completed, the town of Matildaville grew up around the canals - named for Matilda Lee, the first wife of Harry Lee, who would have a son named... Robert E. Lee. 

Ryan and I also managed to climb down the side of the Mather Gorge & find ourselves some nice large rocks to sit on, right next to the frothy, rushing water. It was a pretty warm day on Saturday, & a part of me would have loved to hop into the wildly churning river... but given that over twenty-five people have died in the currents since 2003, I figured I'd better not do that, ha-ha! We enjoyed our picnic lunch & rounded out our time at Great Falls with a walk down to the dam & back! 

This really is a beautiful area of Northern Virginia that is filled with so much history! We really enjoyed poking along the trails & getting a chance to glimpse some wildlife in the process. Ryan got an excellent picture of a crane (heron) while we were on the North River Trail & along with the river birds here & there, we also saw people kayaking the falls & what appeared to be some training exercises being done by local fire departments! 

After our time exploring Great Falls, we made a pit stop on the way home at Tyson's Corner - Ryan had never been to the giant mall, & since we didn't have much going on, we decided to peruse what the mall had to offer. Tyson's is a huge spot - & I'm sure walking both the top & bottom levels in their entirety helped add to the six+ miles we walked on Saturday! We ended our day with a bubble bath (for me), Little Caesar's pizza & some relaxation after a day of so much activity! 

Sunday was Father's Day & I was part of the worship team on Sunday morning at church! You can't see the microphone that I slid behind my Dad's back for the pictures, ha-ha! After church was done, we headed to Hunter's Head Tavern for a delicious Father's Day Brunch & the rest of the afternoon & evening were spent chilling & getting ready for another week! 

I cannot believe how quickly Summer will be upon us! The official start of Summer is this weekend & the weather will certainly feel like Summer this week with temperatures in the upper 90's! Time to find some indoor activities! 

Lately

It has been just a minute since I last posted - but life continues on just as surely and so many things have been happening in the last week or so! I haven't posted in about a week, but these pictures are actually from the last week and a half to two weeks... like the title says, this is a smorgasbord of things that have happened lately. 

After our mountain weekend, we headed up to West Virginia and we were thrilled to see we had access to the second floor and windows and doors on our house! It truly seems like it is going up so quickly and we now have a little tradition of going every Friday to see what kind of progress has been made! 

We are so unbelievably blessed to be able to be building this house and every week, the excitement that comes with being closer to living in our new home builds! Last weekend we were able to attend a church service that took place in the middle of the beauty of the mountains; Ryan's barber is also a pastor, and we enjoy attending his services from time to time. 

They have recently purchased an old church to renovate for the future of their church and so they are holding meetings outdoors, to the right of the church building that's being renovated. We joined on Saturday evening, seated in our lawn chairs, with a pup racing around in the midst of a wonderful sermon and praise music... and best of all... a gorgeous sunset over the mountain peaks in the distance. 

Another visit to our house (this post is a little all over the place) and we were delighted to discover that we have a real roof and the HVAC system has been put into the house! Bit by bit and piece by piece, our lovely little home is coming together and we are loving watching each process - and imaging what we will do when we are able to move in and call it home! 

We grabbed a pizza on our way to see our house - and ate our first meal sitting in the middle of our house! We were technically sitting at the foot of our steps, in our living room and not in our dining room... but that's okay! We love taking the time to look at every new addition and imagining what they might do in the week ahead to further make our house complete! 

I am doing my best to cultivate my green thumb and so far, it seems to be going well. My orchids are doing okay... but everything else seems to be thriving! I have zinnias that should bloom soon, queen Anne's lace that should bloom soon and a succulent and fern that are growing like weeds, ha-ha! I think they get plenty of water and sunlight sitting in my office window and I love opening the window to let the warm summer breezes waft over them! 

My parents came by my office to have lunch with me earlier this week - we aren't allowed to just let people come into our offices, so we ended up sitting outside at this gorgeous little garden and mural right outside the DSS offices. After a rather rude interaction with some townspeople who were intent on making sure we knew that we couldn't have our picnic near the trains, we were happy to sit with this lovely mural for our picnic background. My parents snapped a picture of me waving out of my office window before they left, ha-ha! 

Thursday morning, Ryan and I noticed some commotion outside the basement window and discovered a baby bird had gotten stuck under the grate that covers an escape route from the basement, located outside the window. Ryan went out and removed the grate before he left for work - but the little guy was still not great at flying, and so he couldn't quite get out on his own. I checked in later in the day and my parents ended up using a rake covered with a towel that they put down into the hole... the little bird hopped on and they lifted him out to freedom! 

 

We have a good weekend ahead - we are planning to go to Great Falls tomorrow, and of course, we will celebrate our fathers on Sunday. All week I've been getting up with the sunrise to take a morning walk, and I've really loved watching the rays of the sun peek over the roofs, lighting the day to come. It's a peaceful way to begin the morning and I'm looking forward to continuing this practice. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and it's filled with unexpected joy and love!