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Lindsay (1760 KP) rated Mommy's Oven in Books

Jan 24, 2021  
Mommy's Oven
Mommy's Oven
Brandi Pearce | 2021 | Children
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
surrogate (0 more)
Do you have a little boy or girl that may become a big brother or sister? But you are not carrying that child but you want to explain how that child will be joining your family. This book called “Mommy's Oven” by Brandi Pearce may be able to explain it in a way.

This book is done uniquely through the little boy's view. But it is also based on a true story. It was done well. I just love the story about the surrogate. It brings up the baking a cake analogy which is an original way to talk about making a baby.

I do just love the pictures. They look really real. The images are so well done that I thought they would be popped out of the book. That is how I recall the pictures looked. The story plot is good. Your child can imagine it as if they are the little boy who is getting a new sibling. I think it is good for both genders.

It explains it in a way a child will understand. Parents can read this to their child or children. It may even become a favorite of your child or children. It shows your child and children that family can be made up of different ways but the family can still grow bigger, just differently. Your children may have questions about it and this one good to have on your bookshelf.
  
Hanging Tree: The Sixth PC Grant Mystery
Hanging Tree: The Sixth PC Grant Mystery
Ben Aaronovitch | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
What can I say about The Hanging Tree that isn’t good? It was a satisfying installment to the series but there was still something missing for me. It had the usual characters and the usual awkwardness with Peter Grant and the Met and the demi-monde which as always was written to the same standard.

However, there were a few parts of this book that bugged me which I’ll go through shortly.

The Hanging Tree is the sixth installment of the bestselling Peter Grant/Rivers of London series and finally there is some proper river action. This book centers around Tyburn or Lady Ty as she is affectionately known. Lady Ty for those of you who don’t know is an overwhelming bitch with a major Goddess complex – with good reason really.

This book follows Peter as he helps to investigate the murder of a teenager – don’t let this fool you, the principal suspect in the murder is one of the family Rivers. This kicks off simultaneous police investigations and Folly blow-ups abound.

First, the things I liked:

The reappearance of much loved characters such as Nightingale, Molly, Guleed, Stefanopaulos and even Seawoll.
The introduction of new characters
The familiar writing style
The monologuing of Peter Grant
The plot
The return of some characters I won’t name and
The revelations!!!
Now, I hate to do this really (and I despise using bullet points as a side note) but needs must.

Things I disliked:

The overuse of the term white to describe characters that had no context and almost no bearing on the story-line whatsoever – I’m almost positive I counted at least 15 uses of the word “white” in the first 30% of the book, sometimes more than once a page. The worst use of this – for me – was “a scary white waitress”, I don’t know about you, but the need to describe a character based solely on their skin tone is a big no no for me. It lacked context and bearing on the part of the story at hand.
The return of some characters I won’t name – what the actual fuck Ben? That’s wrong! They can’t be better than Peter!

Now despite my reservations and the things I disliked, I did enjoy this book. In the end. It took about 60% for this book to grab my attention with both hands which I suppose could be construed as a bad thing, however that first two thirds set up the ending in a great way. The culmination of multiple prolonged story arcs were a welcome wrap up to this installment and I look forward to the next.
  
Goodreads: Book Reviews
Goodreads: Book Reviews
Book, Social Networking
9
8.8 (453 Ratings)
App Rating
Easy to find books (7 more)
Great for organizing books
Great way to get reading recommendations
Has a yearly reading challenge to motivate readers
Great place to read and write book reviews
Great place to keep up with what your friends are reading
Awesome reading community!
Has reading clubs/groups you can join.
Must have app
This is definitely my most used app on my phone right behind my kindle app. It’s definitely a must have for any avid reader.

This app makes it so easy to find books. I love that I can organize all the books that I’ve read and want to reading onto “book shelves.” Getting reading recommendations based on the books I’m reading and books that my friends are reading is great. I absolutely love that goodreads has a yearly reading challenge! There is just so much about this app that I love. Goodreads is really a fantastic community for readers! Highly recommend!
  
Crown of Midnight
Crown of Midnight
Sarah J. Maas | 2013 | Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
8
9.1 (48 Ratings)
Book Rating
Crown of Midnight was a wonderful sequel - it improved on pretty much everything from the first book.

Celaena doesn't really do much assassination? Now she's the King's Champion, and it's her job. <spoiler>Well, okay - maybe there's still not too much assassination going on. But there's definitely more action!</spoiler>

That pesky love triangle gets completely done away with (which makes me question why it was an issue in the first place, aside from being there to create drama), and in its place a believable, sweet romance is started.

(I am Team Chaol. All the way.)

Dorian actually grows as a character, and is more than just a stereotypical womanizer.

Even the scope of the story is larger. Where the first book was primarily centered around the castle, Crown of Midnight actually gives us a look at the city. Or, well, certain parts of it, at any rate. And while the threat is still the same vague threat as the first book, by the end, things start to fall into place about what exactly happened ten years ago, and where magic disappeared to.

I really enjoyed this one, which was nice, given my lukewarm feelings about the first book in the series. A good portion of my change of opinion is because of the growth of Dorian and Chaol - particularly Chaol.

I am a sucker for many things in fantasy. I love a good assassin. I love magic, especially when the magic system is well thought out. I love thieves. And I also love loyal knights who have to deal with the bombshell of finding out that everything they thought they were protecting was a lie.

Just watching Chaol fight to reconcile his old loyalties and what he grew up believing with what he now knows to be the truth was beautiful. He goes through an amazing amount of character development, and is easily the most complex character in the story. (Which is why I'm Team Chaol. Even though Celaena doesn't really deserve him.)

He actually reminded me a lot of Darres, from the [b:Vampire Game, Volume 01|282294|Vampire Game, Volume 01|JUDAL|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1343116853s/282294.jpg|273847] manga. Dang it. I need to reread that entire series.

Unfortunately, Celaena stopped me from absolutely adoring this book. She didn't grow very much as a character - in places she actually seemed to regress - and the "twist" was painfully predictable. Even if I hadn't guessed it back at the start of the first book, based on the type of story this is, there's more than enough to pick up on what's going on.

So my reaction was less, <i>"GASP!!!"</i> and more, <i>"Why has nobody else figured this out???"</i>

Especially the king. You'd think he'd be all over that.