Twins Under the Christmas Tree

Isi has two 4 year old twins. She works at a bar to help make ends meet. Her life gets complicated when her babysitter for the twins moves away. She gets Conway to help her babysit them so she can finish her degree at a local community college to get a better job. Conway likes hanging out with the twins they have a really great time together but he is dead set set against being a dad. He is afraid that he will run out on them like his dad did to him. But he can't help the growing attraction to Isi. Isi wants to be with him so bad but knows that he will never commit to her. He even sets her up on a date. They both fight each other about being together until they have sex. He introduces her to his family too. They keep asking him what his problem is. He finally realizes that he can't live without Isi.
       This book was ok but I didn't like it that much. I don't like when characters constantly fight each other when they know they can't live without each other. The ending was very beautiful though.

Star Crossed

Helen lives on an island in the middle of nowhere. A new family the Delos move to the island. Helen is not impressed but the minute she meets Lucas she attacks him. She has this rage that she doesn't know how to control. She also see theses three women crying in blood every time she is near them which she later finds out is the furies. The keep attacking each other for weeks until she flies by accident to get away from this woman that was chasing her. Lucas catches her after she starts to fall cause he can fly too but they land hard on the beach which makes a crater and his family comes and saves them. Lucas has powers from Apollo. Helen has the ability to create lighting bolts, and fly which means she gets her powers from Zeus. Lucas teaches Helen how to fly. After Lucas saves Helen they no longer hate each other. They are forbidden lovers cause if Lucas starts a relationship with Helen it could start a new Trojan war.
      She finds out that the Delos and her are demigods. They are Scions which is basically descendants of demigods. Scion's have specific powers that all scions have that include strength, speed, agility, acute hearing and eyesight, rapid healing, beauty, and intelligence. Then they all have rare talents that arr specific to each individual like flying for example.
      There were 4 families of Greek Gods that fought each other during the Trojan war;The House of Arteus, The House of Rome, The House of Athens, and the House of Thebes. The families have been fighting for centuries. The houses joined with the Greek Gods to fight the Trojan war. The war went on for 10 years and Zeus had to step in to stop it. He made a truce to end the war but in order to do that he had to make sure that the houses never united together again. Then a few decades later the houses had this huge confrontation where they tried to eliminate each other. The House Atreus, the House of Athens, and the House of Rome were completely wiped out supposedly. The House of Thebes was the only house, which is the Delos family's house, separated from the 100 cousins so they would not kill each other. They are not sure what family Helen is from but her mother took some high risks to hide her. The families tried to raise the lost city of Atlantis so that the Greek Gods can return to Earth, rule, and to make the Scions immortal.
       Helen and Lucas want to have a relationship really bad but they are star crossed. Lucas's mom forbids them to stop seeing each other but they can't resist. Later on Creon who is the relative that lives in Venice, Italy comes after Helen because he wants to kill her. Helen finally gets to meet her mother and she discovers she has a gift of changing her face to any age she wants.  The family also finds out that not all the houses are extinct as they thought. They are very much alive still. The fates really have it in for the 4 houses. There has always been a pattern of star crossed lovers from different houses for decades. Helen's mom has dedicated her life to finding these star crossed lovers. Helen's mom gets kidnapped, a family member is killed, and Hector becomes an outcast for killing his own kin. The hundred cousins are on their way to try to kill Helen but I won't know more about that until the 2nd book.

The Haunting of Sunshine Girl

I love starting a new book, with an author I have never read before, on a topic that has never really interested me. I have always loved supernatural shows and books. But a book about a girl who is being haunted by ghosts and demons have never really been my typical reading. But this new series I have started I am becoming obsessed with.
         Sunshine and her mom move from Austin, Texas to Washington state because her mom is a hospital nurse who gets transferred. The house that they move into is haunted by a spirit and shortly after they move in her mom gets possessed by a demon. I learned that a demon can be a ghost of someone that refuses to move on and slowly gets darker turning into a demon. Sunshine hears footsteps, drowning, and plays chess with a little girl ghost. She meets a boy named Nolan in her art class who starts to help her learn about the ghost and the demon so they can get rid of it. He believes in ghosts too because his grandfather believed in them. He is perfect boyfriend material for Sunshine. He discovers that Sunshine is a unique/rare supernatural creature known as a Luiseach. They are supposed to protect mortals from evil ghosts, help spirits move on, and get rid of spirits who won't move on or can't. They go visit a professor at a university a few towns over to get more information only later to find out he is a ghost too.
         She did some research and discovers that the little girl that haunts her drowned a year ago. She discovers that the little girl's mother is her creepy, weird, art teacher. She goes and visits her and she tells her she was a former Luiseach who gave up her powers. Her daughter was killed by her husband who was possessed by a water demon. She gave up her powers so that she could help Sunshine pass her test. She has a mentor and a protector. The test is that she is supposed to get rid/kill the water demon possessing her mother on New Year's night. She succeeds at her mission and she is glad to finally have her mother back. She finds out that Nolan is her protector. She hasn't met her mentor yet and her is supposed to help her with saving her race.
         This was an amazing book and I was completely addicted from page one!!! I discovered a new author and can't wait to read the next book that comes out March 2016.

Single Dad's Christmas Miracle

Althea Johnson takes a job as a tutor for Jack, Clark Beaumont son. He has another child Teagen. His ex-wife cheated on him with another man. Clark has struggled with this for 3 years after the divorce. He didn't put his kids in school because he was nervous about the gossip. Because of this his 12 year old son has no friends and his 3 year old daughter can't talk. Althea works her magic by stiring up some Christmas magic for Clark and help to feel like she finally belongs somewhere. She helps him conquer his fears. She is scared to get involved with a relationship with Clark because of her dad abusing her as a kid. She stole her dad's car to get away from him when she was 18 and he wants money for it. She leaves Clark because of this. He goes after her, the tell each other they love each other, get married, and live happily ever after. I hope they have a kid together too.

Oddly Normal One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality

This book was a memoir written by John Schwartz. The story took place outside NYC in New Jersey. It was about his son Joe and his struggle through elementary to high school about being gay. I found it very interesting since I am friends with several LGBT people. I liked seeing the inside mind of how a father dwelt with trying to advocate for his kid and identifying the signs he saw from an early age of being gay. He also provided statistics and information about LGBT youth. Joe struggled with his teachers and it was hard to find any support for kids that are gay. He went through a suicide incident and had to be taken to the hospital. He encountered many psychologists who tried to label him as having autism or Asperger's but he didn't have these conditions. In middle school he found support in a center in NYC that provided services and fun activities for LGBT kids. After attending the center for a few months he finally felt comfortable enough to come out at school. He attended a LGBT camp. It was great to hear it from a parents perceptive on dealing with Joe struggle but it would have been interesting to read it from Joe's perceptive.

Heroes of Olympus The Son of Neptune

Like I said in my previous post about this about this series that Percy Jackson is missing. He has been wandering around in the wilderness and led to the wolf house where he was trained for Camp Jupiter. Camp Jupiter is the Roman camp version of Camp Half-Blood. He was led down to the camp and fighting monsters along the way. He rescues a Goddess aka Hera that gives him great recognition at camp. He can't remember anything just like Jason. He starts to learn the ways of how the Romans train and it's very different from Camp Half-Blood. I find it quite interesting. The gap between life and death has increased. The door of death have been opened too far. So people that are supposed to die don't die. This isn't good if no one dies the cycle of balance gets messed up and the harder it is to repair the damage.
       Hazel is the daughter of Pluto aka Hades. She has this curse that she can find hidden gems but they are cursed. She is supposed to be dead. She went to rescue her mother form Gaia on an island. They both sacrificed their lives to keep Gaia from rising. Frank is the son of Mars aka Ares. He is very special with tons of gifts. He was supposed to die when he was a baby but his mom saved him. He has a curse too. If this stick of wood gets burned he dies. Percy, Hazel, and Frank are sent on a mission to rescue Thantos the guard of the underworld. There are a ton of monsters on their way to fight Camp Jupiter. They encounter the goddess Iris (Goddess of Rainbows), some poisonous snakes, and the Amazons warriors who use the Amazon company as a cover. Hazel also encounters her dream horse who takes them on a fast chariot ride. They travel to Portland to see a seer and rescue a harpy that is very smart and has a huge impact on their journey. They unintentionally encounter Frank's granny's house. Frank is actually related to Percy. His ancestor was Poseidon's nephew. He has an ability where he can shape shift into anything he wants. He was given a magical spear by his dad. His granny confirms his family gift and gives him a plane ride to Alaska to free Thantos. There was a small gathering of ogres waiting for them.
      After arriving in Alaska, Percy falls through a mud hole and Hazel rescues him and they do some reminiscing of her old life in while cleaning up. they then charter Arion (Hazel's dream horse) that only she can control to take them to the glacier. After arriving at the top they encounter an ice version of Camp Jupiter. They battle the giant and free Thantos. Frank gets to use his gift of shape shifting a lot. Then after defeat they hurry to Camp Jupiter to help aid in the attack. Percy reunites with Tyson. They also rescue some imperial gold tools, imperial gold is deadly to monsters, which makes the battle happen much quicker. Even the Amazons show up to help. After the battle is over Percy is accepted by the Romans and named the praetor. He doesn't want to be this because he misses Annabeth too much and he feels like Jason should have it instead. Percy learns that Hera kidnapped Jason and Percy and erased their memories so that they could both unite the camps together so the Prophesy of 7 can be fulfilled and the gods and demigods need to work together to take on the final battle with Gaea. They receive a letter from Leo saying to let the metal boat enter the camp and they have nothing to fear. Frank and Hazel become close and actually start dating but does their romance get ruined because Leo is actually her long lost soul mate? After the boat arrives Percy hurries to meet with Annabeth who he is dying to see.

Wrecked

Miranda and her friends go out on the ocean on her boat that she doesn't use very often. There was an accident and all her friends die except for 2. She lives on an island and goes to an elite private school. Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was younger. There is a legend on the that there is a sea witch named Sephie causes she accidents all the time and if you say her name on the ocean it can cause an accident. Everyone on the island blame Miranda for the accident. She is isolated and her boyfriend, who was on the boat during the accident, is in a coma. Then she meets Christian. He is a merman. He was sent by Sephie to take her soul because she was not supposed to be rescued. But they end up falling in love. He decides he wants revenge on her so he wants to kill her. In the meantime Sephie calls the cops and tries to get Christian arrested. She can come on land and hosts a dinner party. Miranda attends that party and is captured by Sephie, tied up, and she tries to drown her. Christian like a knight in shinning armor comes to rescue her and wants to have her take him instead.
         Then Miranda ends up catching her and the boat on fire. Everyone gets off the boat this time with no casualties thank the Lord. But after all that Christian and Miranda can't be together because he is cursed to be in the water. It was a book I couldn't put down but I was disappointed by the ending. I wish there was a sequel where they could be together. I love mermaid romance! I loved this book but I only give it 4 stars because they couldn't be together.