Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

I am done with the third book in the Lunar Chronicles series and this one made me laugh. Out of the three, this is number 2 favorite, with Scarlet still being my favorite of all. I liked the character of Cress and I did feel sorry for her since she was stuck in that satellite for 7 years. She was brought to life with the social awkwardness and trust issues. The representation for the Rapunzel line did not meet my expectations. Of course we have the isolation for years, we have the cocky arrogant hero, social anxiety, and the long hair. The long hair did not last long, which is what we all know Rapunzel as.

Thorne's character was a hit and miss with me. I liked his character but I found him to be to much of a cliche. Also, while I was reading his description, all I could picture was the body and not the face. He wants to go by the title of Captain,so I pictured a John Cena body with the arms but not the John Cena face, aged in the early/middle 30's. When I saw a drawing of Thorne on a Lunar Chronicles website, I was like that is not how I pictured it.

I felt bad for Wolf the entire time and I was angry right along with him. Scarlet was kidnapped and she only got 2-3 chapters. When Wolf and Cress were talking about her and he said that Scarlet was his alpha, I about lost it. Scarlet and Wolf are my favorite characters. They are now one of my favorite OTP's.

I still can't stand Cinder and Kai. But while I was reading the ending, I was imagining Kai sound like Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender!! Cinder's character is too much of a flip flopper. One sentece she is crying and giving up and then the next sentence, she is determined and sounding strong. Also.. Iko. Her personality chip gives me life. I love this android. I wish I had an Iko.

I can't wait to read Winter and learn more about the Princess. But first, I am going to be reading Fairest next. I need to know more about Queen Levana!

Freebie Haul 9/18- 9/23

It was a very magazine heavy week. Sorry that this post is a few days late. Cayce and I had a mental health weekend and we filmed a video together. He finally built me a bigger and better bookshelf. It is a late anniversary present and I am in love with it. That video will be up before the weekend...hopefully. I am still learning how to edit and will be doing it on my desktop. It's all a learning process.

Monday: The start of a great freebie week that was filled with a bunch of magazine that will turn into resources for school projects that I planned out for the girls.

September 21, 2017 issue of Rolling Stone

October 2017 issue of Redbook

October 2017 issue of Marie Claire

Tuesday: Got another magazine and a long awaited Pinchme box.

October 2017 issue of Fast Company

Pinchme box: ZzzQuil, Hidden Valley Simple Ranch, Orbit White gum 

Wednesday: One lonely magazine with the gorgeous Reese Witherspoon

October 2017 issue of Glamour magazine

Thursday: I found out that Food Lion was doing a 5 days of Freebies and I missed Monday-Wednesday, but I got todays and I will be getting tomorrows.

6 Ct Fruit by The Foot from Food Lion

50 free prints from Amazon Prints

September 25, 2017 issue of Sports Illustrated

September 22, 2017 issue of Entertainment Weekly

Friday: The only freebie we got today was the last of the 5 days of Freebies from Food Lion

Full size Honey Nut Cheerios from Food Lion

Saturday: The mailbox was packed with a big box and more magazines. My favorite freebie for the week has to be my favorite ladies from The Walking Dead gracing the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

Kaboom Foam-Tastic from Smiley360

September 29, 2017 issue of  Entertainment Weekly

October 2017 issue of Golf Digest

October 2017 issue of Bazaar magazine (150th Anniversary Collector's Edition)

October 2017 issue of Southern Living

This was a great freebie week. I loved everything I received. My favorite has to be the magazine with The Walking Dead crew.

School Week 6 Photos

This was our longest week yet. Sammy and Airy had their normal 5 day week, and Addy had a 6day to make up for that Wednesday when she had her eye appointment. We had out first field trip of the year on Saturday. We had an amazing trip to the SC State Museum.

Monday: We started our day with an hour apart. I always start Samantha first on these days, and then Ariana and then Adalyn. They worked on Easy Peasy, and had some reading time.

Addy doing her Easy Peasy lessons

She is on the letter D this week. She had to make the annual D is for Daddy picture.

Coloring her own "D" words book

working on spelling pages

Tuesday: Today we had a different start to the day. I had Ariana and Sammy start together early. I had Ariana do her Easy Peasy lessons first while Samantha read aloud to me and then after an hour, they switched.

working on poetry copywork

Easy Peasy math lessons.

I had Addy start her day with watching Super Why. I figured it would be another good show for her to get into, and I was right.

Addy using three letter word flashcards.

Wednesday: I didn't take many pictures today. We had a little sleep in this morning and started around 10am. They requested a science day, so we watched more Planet Earth and had very lengthy discussions of the episodes we watched after. One telling sign about my girls is that when they really enjoy something they watch, they always pretend and act out what they learned for Cayce when he gets home from work and they tell him everything in detail. This was one of those days. We ended our day with reading the books below.

Thursday: We all started together this morning and it went better than I expected. I should just stick with this schedule. I have had 3 different schedules so far this year and I revert back to which ever one suits my mood.

Sammy working on Easy Peasy.

Addy watching more Super Why.

Ariana working on Vocab words

handwriting practice.

We ended the day with reading Astrotwins.

Friday: We had a very late start to the day. We had a late family night and we had another sleep in/ late breakfast. We finished our Solar System unit with a Netflix documentary called Secrets of The Solar System. Then we watched Bill Nye where the girls chose their next science unit study.... FOOD CHAINS. We ended our day with reading together cuddled on the bed with Luna.

Saturday: We visited the South Carolina State Museum for Smithsonian Museum Day Live. We could visit anytime, but this seemed like the perfect day to do so. I used to take field trips here in Elementary school. Addy loved the shark section and they all loved the fossils and interactive stations. The space part wasn't that exciting and Airy wasn't that thrilled with it.

looking at fossils

Needless to say, it was a great school week. We finished up two units and have picked out what we will be focusing on and learning about next. We have entered a new season which means absolutely nothing in South Carolina because the temps are still in the 90's.

Review: The Windfall by Diksha Basu

About the book: For the past thirty years, Mr. and Mrs. Jha’s lives have been defined by cramped spaces, cut corners, gossipy neighbors, and the small dramas of stolen yoga pants and stale marriages. They thought they’d settled comfortably into their golden years, pleased with their son’s acceptance into an American business school. But then Mr. Jha comes into an enormous and unexpected sum of money, and moves his wife from their housing complex in East Delhi to the super-rich side of town, where he becomes eager to fit in as a man of status: skinny ties, hired guards, shoe-polishing machines, and all.

The move sets off a chain of events that rock their neighbors, their marriage, and their son, who is struggling to keep a lid on his romantic dilemmas and slipping grades, and brings unintended consequences, ultimately forcing the Jha family to reckon with what really matters.

My Thoughts: I kind of liked this story. It's all about this Indian family, the Jhas. They have recently come into a large amount of money that has made them wealthy. It is about the social status and a lot of gossip. They move from their family home that was in a poor housing complex in Delhi. India and move into a rich neighborhood. The husband is my least favorite character. He wants everything that is non practical. He buys a new sofa that has swarovski crystals embedded in it just because he can. 

The wife is hesitant about leaving their lives and changing everything they have known at their age. She wants to keep her husband grounded and she worries non stop about her son. Their son is at an American college and he is not doing well. This book was a constant back and forth between look at what they have, we need that. We need to make sure such and such knows we were here and we need proof. You need to go to the gym and lose weight and wear your diamonds and wear a skirt. 

The ending was not that great because you realize their was absolutely no character building for the son or the father. The wife, Mrs Jha had a tone of character building. Mr. Jha was left a miserable man who tried to pretend he was smart with his wealth, when in fact he was just a phony who wanted to look good.

This book is an own voices novel and I really enjoyed reading this book for this aspect. 

About the Author: Diksha Basu is a writer and occasional actor. Originally from New Delhi, India, she holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and now divides her time between New York City and Mumbai.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Hollar.com Haul

Time for another Hollar haul. I made this purchase back when the summer was just starting and that's the reason for all the pool toys. Even though we were only able to get in the pool twice this summer because we were having so many issues with the liner, we still got to play with these inflatables and they were amazing. They are in storage for next summer. I also had to get a couple of things for the house and then this was before Samantha's birthday, so the toys were part of her birthday presents.

Jumbo bacon magnet.

Intex Floating Hoops 

Intex ring. 

Addy loved having a bigger ring

Intex floating mat

This was great for getting my little tan on

Intex ride-on whale

This was the favorite of all the inflatables.

Dove dry deodorant and Teen spirit stick Pink Crush

Massaging Spa Cleanser

Decorated Elephant

Nerf Rebelle Charmed bow and arrow

Pink and Yellow LED bunnies

Pokeball (contained a froakie)

Star mug

(my 2nd fvorite mug after my Starbucks Atlanta mug)

Since I bought these items months ago, I don't know if any are still on the website. But you should definitely go take a look anyways. They have such great items for any part of your life. They have grocery items, pet products, a toy section, school supplies and seasonal items.