Monday, August 12, 2024

Port A Swope Vacay - Year 2!

We returned to Port Aransas for another summer adventure of the Swope family at the end of June! We rented the same house as last year but added another little love to the mix with Sawyer upgrading #theSwopesix to #theSwopeseven.

Our family of 5 went up a day early and went out to eat at a restaurant on the water.

Playing trivia games waiting on our table

Gorgeous view! But also hot and SO MANY mosquitos!

We started our first full day with some pool time and cocktails!

When the rest of the Gurley clan arrived, Sawyer was a big star!
Our time together included beach, pool, food, dominos/cards, cocktails, repeat.









Sawyer didn't make the cut for this pic, but there's always next year, ha.

We found a Gus look-alike at the next tent named Bozo!
And my parents are the cutest! {grin}

We celebrated this guy turned FIFTEEN with a burger dinner and snow cones!

And more Sawyer time of course!

The Swope Seven!

A great time with great family! Already looking forward to next year's trip.


Monday, August 5, 2024

July 2024 Book Review


This month I read 10 books bringing my total for the year to 74, 16 ahead of my goal. I'm really stinking at slowing my reading down, BUT I am continuing to do more audiobooks to free up some time for Brent! {grin}


Legacy of the Dead
 by Charles Todd - Continuing on my WW1 detective series about an inspector haunted by PTSD and the ghost of a man he ordered shot during the war. The first three were fine, and I enjoyed this one more! I started book 5 a few days ago, so I like these enough to keep going.


The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros - I was nervous to read anything else by Rebecca Yarros since I have LOVED Fourth Wing so much. I thoroughly enjoyed this romance, but the ending is devastating, and at times the love story was very fraught. So I know some people would roll their eyes at it, but overall I enjoyed!


Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
 
by Jamie Ford - The subject of this seemed really interesting - a young Chinese American boy whose Japanese American friend is put in an internment camp during WW2, and it toggled between the past and present with the boy grown up. I found it SLOW, so SLOW that I struggled to get through it. When it was over, I thought it had been an interesting read, but sheesh it dragged.


Hannah: The Lighthouse Girl of Newfoundland
 by Don Ladolcetta - I'm not sure where my mom met this author, but she got a signed copy of this book for Drew, and we read it together. This is the story of the author's mom who grew up on a small island off Newfoundland because her father ran the lighthouse there in the decades before WW2. We both really enjoyed this story, it was well-written and we liked Hannah and her family so much!



A Crown This Cold and Heavy/A Queen This Fierce and Deadly by Stacia Stark [audiobook] - I enjoyed finishing this romantasy series. It was a good series, not great, but if you like romantasy, I think you'll like it! 


The House of Eve by Sadeqa Johnson - Sadeqa Johnson is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine! This book followed 2 Black women in the early 1950s - one who is pregnant as a teenager and one who is married and unable to conceive. This was such an interesting story, and I felt it started a smidge slow but once it got going I couldn't put it down! It also had a small callback to Yellow Wife which was a fun surprise!


Wolfsong by T.J. Klune - This was July's Blog Friend Book Club selection, and there were mixed reviews. However, I LOVED it! Without saying too much, because I think this is a great book to go into without a lot of information, this is a book about pansexual werewolves. {grin}


Summer Romance
 by Annabel Monaghan - I ADORED Nora Goes Off Script and was mildly disappointed in Same Time Next Summer, so I was apprehensive to read the newest release by Annabel Monaghan, and I loved it! It wasn't quite as good as Nora {but I don't think anything ever will be}, but this was great. It follows a newly divorced woman who thinks she's having a summer romance - but what if it seems to be so much more?!


The Next Mrs. Parrish
 by Liv Constantine - The Last Mrs. Parrish is the gold standard of thrillers for me, so I was super excited for a sequel...and it was good, if not great. I enjoyed being back with these characters {some of them delightfully hate-able}, but parts of the story felt uneven - lots of twists and turns that just came out of nowhere but felt a little out of place or over the top? Also, this is VERY nitpicky, but there was a new character named Daisy Ann from Texas and the portrayal of the Texans annoyed me, and I struggled to stay in the story because of it. Men calling women 'little lady' and a character saying 'what in the tarnation' - people don't actually talk like that in Texas! I don't ding my review for it, but it drove me up the wall!!!

And that is July! My average for the month was 3.7, a little lower than the rest of the year, but still some good reads!