Happy Sunday everyone!  I hope this week has found everyone well.  I’m really hopeful that I can make something fun out of this Week in Review weekly posting, as I fear that my slow progress through my ‘reading’ list might actually become boring.  I’m sorry about that, but I do spend a lot of time doing things like working, mothering, powerlifting, wifeing.  You know, all very important things. 

Another couple of my activities also include knitting and crocheting, and since July I’ve been keeping a Bullet Journal.  This week I was happy to re-stock on my favorite pens for my journal.  I’m a leftie, and I have trouble with the push/drag of pens.  Sharpies are pretty smooth riding, and I love the boldness of the ink.

I also finished up a scarf that I had been working on for……well, way too long.  A friend purchased the yarn and asked me to make her a Bronco’s scarf.  I did.  But I should have gotten it done about a year ago.  Yiee.  But I HAD to finish it because I want to start making Christmas gifts for this year, and I didn’t want to start making new things until I finished the one that I had committed to first. 

Also in the playbook for this week was starting the preparations for my youngest daughter’s 10th birthday!  She is alllll about Five Nights at Freddy’s right now, so I’m doing a FNAF themed birthday party, the best I can anyway.  I already said it on Facebook, but Chuck E. Cheese’s really needs to bank in on this new and probably quickly passing fad while they can.  Do you know how many pre-teens would LOOOOVE to go see the freaky animatronics from their game, and play in an arcade as well?  Seriously, get with it people, before the opportunity is gone.  Anyhow, I’ve got a few things on Etsy ready to buy, and I picked up some REALLY nice and REALLY expensive FNAF invitations.  They are glossy print pictures, but $20 for invitations is a lot, you know.  Still, the nicest invitations I’ve ever purchased by far, so it does kind of take some of the hurt out of the purchase.  If it wasn’t such a specific theme and I told the kid from now on we are only doing parties for the milestone birthdays (10, 13, 16, 18) from now on – so I kind of felt like it had to happen, you know?

Kind of creepy, don’t you agree?

Okay, so on to the books.

I visited NetGalley.com this week, and decided to allow myself 3 requests.  I will wait to hear back about these requests before I can go request anything more…that way I prevent having a huge influx of books that absolutely must be reviewed!  So here is what I requested:

Wintersong by S. Jae-Joenes

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

 Freaks by Amanda Hocking

Welcome to Gideon Davorin’s Traveling Sideshow, where necromancy, magical visions, and pyrokinesis are more than just part of the act…

Mara has always longed for a normal life in a normal town where no one has the ability to levitate or predict the future. Instead, she roams from place to place, cleaning the tiger cage while her friends perform supernatural feats every night.

When the struggling sideshow is miraculously offered the money they need if they set up camp in Caudry, Louisiana, Mara meets local-boy Gabe…and a normal life has never been more appealing.

But before long, performers begin disappearing and bodies are found mauled by an invisible beast. Mara realizes that there’s a sinister presence lurking in the town with its sights set on getting rid of the sideshow freeks. In order to unravel the truth before the attacker kills everyone Mara holds dear, she has seven days to take control of a power she didn’t know she was capable of—one that could change her future forever.

Bestselling author Amanda Hocking draws readers inside the dark and mysterious world of Freeks.

The Elusive Miss Ellison by Carolyn Miller

Pride, prejudice and forgiveness…
Hampton Hall’s new owner has the villagers of St. Hampton Heath all aflutter–all except Lavinia Ellison. The reverend’s daughter cares for those who are poor and sick, and the seventh Earl of Hawkesbury definitely does not meet that criteria. His refusal to take his responsibilities seriously, or even darken the door of the church, leave her convinced he is as arrogant and reckless as his brother–his brother who stole the most important person in Lavinia’s world.

Nicholas Stamford is shadowed by guilt: his own, his brother’s, the legacy of war. A perfunctory visit to this dreary part of Gloucestershire wasn’t supposed to engage his heart, or his mind. Challenged by Miss Ellison’s fascinating blend of Bluestocking opinions, hoydenish behavior, and angelic voice, he finds the impossible becoming possible–he begins to care. But Lavinia’s aloof manner, society’s opposition and his ancestral obligations prove most frustrating, until scandal forces them to get along.

Can Lavinia and Nicholas look beyond painful pasts and present prejudice to see their future? And what will happen when Lavinia learns a family secret that alters everything she’s ever known?

My currently reading list is actually the same as it was last week, so I won’t bore you with that one.  So until next time my lovely readers, cheers!