The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

The Pioneer Woman:  Black Heels to Tractor Wheels has got to be one of my favorite books I have read this year.  I loved it!  I laughed out loud so many times!  Ree Drummond is so funny!  If you are not a fan of The Pioneer Woman, then you need to be.  I love her cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  I got it for my birthday last year, and there is some serious yumminess there, but this isn't a cookbook, it is a love story (even though it does have recipes in the very back).  This is Ree's true love story of how she meet her cowboy husband and went from living in L.A. to living in the middle of no-where in Oklahoma on a working cattle ranch.  It is a true story, full of lots of kissing (who doesn't like kissing?) and lots of laughs, and even some tears here and there.  It starts when she first sees her future cowboy husband across a smoky bar to a year after they are married--and oh my what a year they had!  Please check it out, you will be so happy you did, and tell me if you don't laugh out loud too!

Blackveil and The Green Rider series by Kristen Britain

I just finished the 4th book in Kristen Britain's Green Rider series called Blackveil.  I loved Green Rider when I first read it last year.  It was one of my favorites of the whole year.  It follows the life of Karigan, who is a merchant's daughter.  She was at school, but she beat the son of an aristocrat in a sword fight, and she has run away from school.  While running away she encounters a Green Rider, which is one of the king's special messengers.  He is shot through the back with 2 arrows, and he begs her to finish his mission which is delivering a life or death secret message to the king.  She promises she will help him as he dies and her life is never the same again as she is chased all over the country by bandits and evil that does not want the message delivered.  Great first book.  It is set in a make believe land with magic, evil, adventure, war, betrail, history, and a touch of romance set in.  It is an adult book series, and there is war and carnage as goes with any war type book--some not too pleasant to read.  The 4th book is further adventures of Karigan as she and a group of warriors must enter the evil, tainted Blackveil forest.  It was very good--couldn't put it down good, but be warned being an adult book there is one love scene you can skip over.  That is the first scene in the whole series.  One complaint I have about the series is how slow the writer is in getting them out, like 4-5 years between each book--hello?  The first was written in 1998.  So, with that said, this 4th book ends in a cliffhanger, and I will probably have to wait 4 years before it gets resolved--ugh, don't like that, but really like this series.

The Youngest Templar Series by Michael P. Spradlin

The Youngest Templar series by Michael P. Spradlin is awesome.  This is set during the time of the Crusades in England and the Holy Land.  It follows the life of the young orphan Tristan as he becomes the squire to a Templar Knight and gets in trusted with the Holy Grail.  Along he road he meets Robard Hode (Robin Hood, anyone?) and Maryam (Maid Mary Ann?) who help him along his journey as he is chased by the bad guys, saves a princess, meets the evil Sheriff of Nottingham and comes to know who he is.  It was so fun to read, very engaging.  These are young adult books filled with adventure, war, lots of fun, and what true friendship really is.  I love stories that tell you how other stories got started, so we learn about how Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck and Maid Mary Ann came to be.  Great reads.  Check them out.

Bellwether by Connie Willis

Bellwether by Connie Willis is science fiction.  Okay, science fiction is just not my thing but give me some credit for not giving up on this half way through, which I really wanted to do, but didn't.  I did finish the whole thing and can say it is just not my thing.  Bellwether is about two scientists--one trying to study fads and what causes them, specifically why did bobbing one's hair become a fad, and the other scientist is trying to study the chaos theory but doesn't get funding, so he has to study apes.  Then that funding gets cut and they end up studying sheep together.  I know, weird.  It sort of turns into a love story at the very, very end (like with 3 pages left), but that is about its only redeeming quality.  Sorry, if you like science fiction, you may like this, but it was just not for me.