Loving Lieutenant Lancaster by Sarah M. Eden

 Yet another regency romance by Sarah Eden! This one is among the series about the Lancaster family and focuses on the only son in said family. The setup is familiar to Eden's books: a house party where the unassuming reticent girl attracts the eye of the handsome yet awkward young gentleman. Other more forward women are thrust into his attention, yet he chooses the quiet, interesting, beautiful girl instead of the obvious boisterous, flamboyant ones. It's not a bad plot to relax into on a return flight home after spending time with wedding preparations for my daughter. 

Recommend: Yes

The Fortune Café by Julie Wright, Melanie Jacobson, Heather B. Moore

 This is the first book in the Tangerine Street Romance series. I had an upcoming plane flight and I wanted to something short and easy to read on the plane. I have read Melanie Jacobson's books before and enjoyed the light hearted banter and solid characters she writes so I decided to give this one a try. It's three short stories all centered around a Chinese restaurant called The Fortune Café. Each story has some of the characters from the other two stories intertwined in a subtle way. As the title of the book suggests, the fortune cookies at this restaurant tend to come true and help the characters overcome odds to find solid relationships. 

Recommend: Yes. 

Wrestling

 Peter's freshman year of high school wrestling ended today. He ended the season with 20 wins and 12 losses and wrestled varsity for 6 of those matches winning 2 of them. He placed 3rd in a JV tournament today and did excellent!  Here is a video of the last period of his last match. He wrestled this guy first today and got pinned, then wrestled him again and pinned him, it was a hard fought match and very exciting to watch. 

Wrestling tournament at Lees Summit North High School

Diving

 Diving season is over for my Lucy Lou. Conference diving was this past Thursday and Lucy did not qualify for Districts. She was a little disappointed, but is happy to sleep in as her practices are at 5:30am. She has decided not to dive her senior year, so this was the last time we will see her dive competitively. Here are a few videos of her dives this year. 

24 Hours in Nowhere by Dusti Bowling

 Book #2 read aloud to my kids. I originally read this on October in 2021 and loved it. Bowling wrote two other books that are excellent, Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus and Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus. Both are worth the read. Bowling has a knack for telling stories that are believable and engaging. Her books take place in the hot desert of Arizona and address bullying and not succumbing to peer pressure to be someone you are not, two really important subjects for young readers and for adults as well.

Nowhere is a town in Arizona that tops all the charts: highest poverty rate, lowest high school graduation rate, most likely place to die by cactus impalement among others. Gus is stuck there like most everyone in the town and sees dead ends everywhere he looks, but within a matter of 24 hours hope blossoms in a most unexpected way. Gus discovers truths about others and himself and things don't look so bleak anymore, even though they are in the middle of Nowhere.

 Recommend as a read aloud? Yes.