Loving Baldacci!!!

First Family by David Baldacci
Sean King/Michelle Maxwell #4

Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are back in action. Sean is called by an old acquaintance who happens to be the first lady's sister-in-law. When him and Michelle arrive at the house to meet with her, they are ambushed with gun fire. When the smoke clears they find the woman dead, two of her three kids drugged, her husband knocked unconscious, and her oldest daughter missing. The case escalates as the FBI, secret service, and First Family are pulled in to this thrilling story.

I love this series!!!

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann

Cryer's Cross, Montana is a tiny town with a one-room school house where Kendell and her best friend/boyfriend Nico grew up and are now seniors. Recently, sophomore Tiffany disappeared. Seemingly vanishing into thin air. No one in Cryer's Cross can figure out what happened but fears are compounded when Nico disappears in similar fashion.

I really liked the idea of this book and liked the characters but it wasn't quite scary enough and I think that the story behind the story could have been fleshed out more. It came to kind of a quick conclusion.

Dust for Dinner by Ann Turner

This is a leveled reader about a family in Oklahoma who lose everything - the crops, their animals, food, and their farm - due to the dust bowls of the 1930's. They are forced to pack up what they can and head west to California. This was great for my kiddos who could not read Out of the Dust with the rest of the class.

Finished up the trilogy plus another YA

Red Lily by Nora Roberts
In the Garden Trilogy #3

In the third installment of the Garden Trilogy, Haley is restless and lonely. She is surrounded by this new family at the Harper House, good friends, a job she loves, and a gorgeous toddler, but something is missing. Haley is longing for love and romance and trying to decide what to do about her feelings for Harper Ashby. At the same time, Amelia's ghost is stirring up trouble again and this time she is targeting Haley. Can Mitch., Roz, Haley, Stella, Harper, and David figure out what happened to Amelia before it is too late?


Stop Pretending: What happened when my big sister went crazy
by Sonya Sones

Written in verse. Cookie's big sister had a mental breakdown and it landed her in a psychiatric facility. The family Cookie once knew and loved is now virtually unrecognizable. At the same time, her friends have pulled away and other kids have begun to tease. No one wants to be friends with the girl with the crazy sister. But Cookie loves her sister and is heartbroken.

Taylor Jackson

Judas Kiss by JT Ellison
Taylor Jackson Series #3

Taylor Jackson and Fiance John Baldwin have just returned from a romantic getaway in Italy and are thrown right back into thier work. Baldwin is off to Quantico and Taylor is off to a new crime scene where a young well off seven months pregnant mother is found brutally beaten to death in her own home with her young toddler running around the house covered in her mother's blood. The husband seems like the obvious choice, but something is off with that theory. Taylor's life becomes increasingly complicated when secrets from her own past are revealed and a menacing world wide killer out for revenge on Baldwin gets too close to Taylor.

Another good one from Ellison. I love this series.

We continue our time-traveling

Mummies in the Morning by Mary Pope Osbourne
Magic Treehouse #3

Sofia was taking the Magic Treehouse quizzes online and discovered this title. We read the first two chapters of it online and she was so anxious to know what Jack and Annie would find in the pyramid, that Issac had to run out to our local bookshop and grab a copy of this one. She is so into these books. On to our next adventure....

Fun!

Polar Bears Past Midnight by Mary Pope Osbourne
Magic Treehouse Series #12

Sofia and I enjoyed our second Magic Treehouse book together. Afterwards, as suggested by her teacher, we went online to magictreehouse.com and created an account. We followed a really fun online adventure based on the books and earned a medallion. Then Sofia took little quizzes (3 questions each) about the four Treehouse books she has read (two with me, two with her teacher). For each one, she earned a stamp in her Magic Treehouse Passport. She loved doing this and is anxious to read the next book to earn more passport stamps.

In this book, Jack and Annie travel to the arctic where they meet a man in a sealskin coat. They go mushing, play with polar bear cubs, get rescued from the cracking ice by the mama polar bear, and even see the Northern Lights. Sofia and I had read a early reader science book about the Northern Lights a few weeks ago, so she was excited to find a "connection." She is big on finding connections thanks to her amazing teacher!!

In the Garden Trilogy #2

Black Rose by Nora Roberts

The second book in the In the Garden Trilogy is focused on Roz and her budding relationship with the handsome researcher/writer, Dr. Mitchell Carnegie. Mitch is helping Roz research the Harper family history with the hopes of discovery exactly who Amelia, who haunts the Harper homestead, is and why she cannot move on. This book sees a lot more ghostly action and delves a lot deeper into Roz's past and who she is.

I am really liking this trilogy. I think I loved this one even more than the first because of the genealogy and ghost activity aspects.

The Fall and Rise of Teen Love in Verse

What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones

Sophie is a pretty typical teen living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is artistic, pretty, and completely boy crazy. Her father is never around and her mother lies around watching soaps all day, neither caring too much about what Sophie does. This book is written in verse and outlines the awkwardness of teenage love, dating, and desires.