Eva Lapp is a young girl or woman. She takes a job that her cousin Olivia recommends. Her brother and his family show up at her parents home two days early. Her sister-in-law decides to send her on her way. 

 

When she gets to Yodel’s Nursery she is in surprise for she thinks she goes to be working with plants. There a surprise when she finds out she is to manage the small cafe. 

 

She seems to be getting suitor left and right, though she does not feel them. She thinks they are either too young or she does not know for sure. 

 

Jake returns and Eva has a feeling for him. Are they true or is she just think she got feelings. Things get a little bumpy when someone breaks into the cafe or at least looks that way. Stephen seems to have a feeling for Eva but does Eva have a feeling for Stephen? 

 

There is an adventure at every turn once you start reading. Some folks keep blaming Jake for the burned down fire? Did Jake do it? Eva also is having trouble with whether to stay Amish or to go English? Kate Lloyd writes a completing story and shows how Eva Lapp is snuggling with her problems. Can she overcome them? Will Jake and Eva turn towards God for help?

 

 

Listening to Neil Gaiman is such a lovely thing, I realized I would be willing to listen to him reading phone books or grocery lists.  But it's even better to hear him reading his stories.  In his introduction, he discusses trigger warnings--from their start on the internet to their being attached to works of literature and art.  He shares that after wondering if trigger warnings would ever be attached to his own work, he decided to be the first to do it.  Proceed with caution if you are triggered by a wonderful, wide-ranging imagination.

So K is into Minecraft and when I saw this book I thought maybe he would enjoy this story. Now this story is not authorized or sponsored by Microsoft Corp and its affiliates as this is written on the back of the book. 

Three kids Harriet, Jack and Toby are treasure hunters which is pretty cool and they find this journal but unknown to them until they start reading it that something seemed to have happened to William and his friend Oliver. They are warned not to read this missing journal as bad things will happen but hey who ever listened to warnings. From the time they start reading it things start to happen. They fight skeletons among other things but it all seems to happen when they read something from that journal could it really be cursed? If it is why was it cursed and where is William at? Now the journal is William's account of what Oliver and him went through as explorers of the Overworld. At the end of the story someone is found but will that person have answers?

K really liked it as he knew some of the things that were in the book via the video game and he was very interested to see if William would be found or if the three friends would ever survive. We do plan on getting book two when it is available from the library. 

I do like the whole journal idea especially when we go from what is happening to the three friends to the entry of what William and Oliver are seeing and doing. It flows very nicely. 

Brutal Discoveries - Kasey Millstead

SO let us get this out of the way to start. This author was MAJORLY hitting the Kristen Ashley inspiration bong whilst writing this little diddy of a book. No judgment from yours truly. Just telling it like it is...



Scarlett Everett is the owner and head baker at a successful bakery called Sweet Treats She's been lucky in life and has always wanted to give back to the community. She volunteers for the Friends for Lifers program at South Glenn prison, and there she is paired with Damon Salt a convicted murderer and rapist. What happens during those visits will forever change her life.

Aden West is a prison guard at South Glenn. Tall with indigo eyes and tattoos, he is quickly named #HOTTIE by the staff of Sweet Treats and when he turns those eyes on Scarlett she just can't seem to stop her racing heart.




"Obviously, I work here. Clocked you on your first visit, babe, watched you on the monitors, wondering what a hot piece like you would be doing visiting a joint like this."


This was an OK read. I enjoyed it for the most part (mostly because it reminded me so much of KA's Rock Chick series) The writing was a little simplistic, and there were things I thought needed to be a little more fleshed out. The Damon angle added some darkness and mystery to the story, but I felt that the parts where he read his journal were a bit too long and actually had the effect of disrupting the flow of the story. It didn't help that sometimes the changeovers from Scarlett/Aden to Damon reading his journal was very abrupt and it took a few seconds to realize we were back in the prison and were getting Damon's story. I will say the twist that occurs at 70% actually surprised me. Not that I didn't KNOW what the twist was, that I had figured out quite early. The WHO though did throw me for a loop because I was thinking it was going to be someone else. So kudos to you author for THAT!


"Babe,” he sighed. “Your hair, your smile, those tits, that ass…makes a man think of nothing more than lifting that apron up over your hips"


Both characters were enjoyable. Aden was a carbon copy of the typical KA hero. Doesn't talk in complete sentences. "BABE" this and "BABE" that. "BABE EYES" and "THANK FUCK" Well if you've read any KA books, then you get the idea. I liked him a lot though. I am a sucker for that type of hero.

Scarlett was also a likable heroine. She wasn't shrilly or over the top bitchy. She wasn't TSTL, and there wasn't really any pushing away by either character. This was pretty much insta-love on both sides. The side characters were fine. I'm guessing we will get a second book that features Scarlett's BFF and Aden's friend Will. They have a bit of a side story in this one, but I sense there is more to be written.



Where this one did lose some stars for me was the complete lack of angst the "TWIST" caused. We have shock, but then everyone goes on with their lives as happy as can be. In fact the last 30% of the book slowed down to a grinding pace and I found myself getting bored. Also, there was this one totally not needed and ridiculously placed OW scene that cause about 2 pages of drama. It was SO out of the blue and unnecessary, especially that late into the book.

Overall I liked it, but didn't LOVE it. If you are a fan of KA like me (especially her early stuff) then I would imagine this would be a decent way to spend a few hours.

Zombies aren't real and they don't help in explaining consciousness, quantum computers and epigenetics are real (and cool), gender makes a difference in drug efficacy, entanglement is cool, time is not a part of physics, and the big bang theory doesn't explain everything and has some problems. All those concepts are explored in this book and probably are familiar to any regular listener of Audible's pop science books.

Science is not perfect and speculation beyond what we currently accept is worth while, but to make a book really worth my while tell me things I don't already know. This book fails at telling me things I haven't read elsewhere.

If you're not too familiar with pop science books, this book provides a good essay approach to a lot of interesting topics (with a little bit too much speculation, though), but for almost everyone else I would recommend skipping this book. (Except, the section on epigenetics did standout and the understanding about the importance of epigenetics needs to be more widely understood).