Nadine

Coming at you with some book reviews! I went through a rut of not reading for a solid two weeks, but still managed to finish out April strong. I can take or leave Love Your Life….but the rest I suggest adding to your list!

The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth has become a must read for me over the last few years. Her characters are always so well written, and this book is no exception. It was hard to put down, as the book alternates between the three main women. A lot of heavy topics are covered in this book from domestic abuse, rape, miscarriage, binge eating, alcoholism, murder. It was all handled really well.

My only gripe is that I had an early ARC edition, and my ending did not match with the rest of my book club. I think they got off better than I did. As my ending was very open ended with not as much closure. I can only assume that early feedback made her change it? Either way, this book was still enjoyable and I can’t wait for more from Hepworth.

Bottom Line: Read it!!!

**I received a copy of The Younger Wife from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Love Your Life by Sophie Kinsella

I am not sure what I want to say about this one? Overall, I liked the story. But there were a lot of things that bothered me about it. The insta-love was not believable for me. Honestly, I never really felt the chemistry between Ava and Matt. There were so many red flags that were ignored, and Ava felt very immature to me. I did love Matt and Ava’s friends though. Nell and Topher crackers me up. I think I wanted this book to be My Not So Perfect Life. I enjoyed that one so much!!!! This one just fell flat in a lot of ways. The middle was a little dull and boring. I really like the way the book ended though. The timing there felt right, the characters seemed to grow, and I just love how it all turned out. So that makes it hard for me to rate this one.

Bottom Line: If you are a fan of Sophie Kinsella, I would check it out. Overall though, it was just ok for me.

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

I was instantly hooked on this book. I didn’t know much about it going into it, and that is the way I think it is best to approach this one. So I am not going to say much about it, incase there are other people reading this who haven’t gotten to this one yet. I am just going to leave you with, it covers a hard topic…but it was done so well. This book made me smile, but it was also very raw and heartbreaking. I am glad it ended the way it did, even though part of me was like but but but. I could hardly put it down.

Bottom Line: Read it!!

The Friend Zone by Abby

I loved this book! I read books two and three in the series first, but I loved them so much I knew I had to go back and read the start of it all. I loved that Kristen dealt with a lot of the female problems I do. It was so relatable for me. There are so many books about girls with anxiety, I think there should be more about girls with PCOS, endometriosis, etc. But anyways, Kristen and Josh. Swoon!!!! Their banter was so good and the connection felt real. I loved how badass Kristen was…in almost every way but one. I think it would help if you read these books in order, but it is ok if you don’t. It was 100% worth it for me to go back and read this one, I enjoyed it so much!

Bottom Line: Definitely recommend this series. Love it!

Starry-Eyed Love by Helen Hunting

This is the second book in the series, though it could be read as a stand alone. I loved getting to visit with the Spark sisters again. I feel differently about Avery (the sister from the first book) after reading this one, though. I hope there is a book for Harley, I just loved her relationship with London. They seem very close. As for London and Jackson? So cute! I really appreciated the realness of the way London felt about her position at Spark House and the things she struggled with. I like that both Jackson and London had some baggage from the past, and they really dealt with it well throughout the book. It just felt realistic to me as far as the pacing went.

The audio version was done well. I like that we have a male for the Jackson parts of the book. Both narrators are captivating.

Bottom Line: Read it!

**I received an audio copy of Starry-Eyed Love from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are of my own.**

Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight by Janet Evanovich

Diesel is back! I always love the books that have Diesel in them. This is one of my favorite series, and I never miss a book. Stephanie Plum, Joe Morelli, Ranger, Lula, Grandma Mazur…the whole gang is back for another. This time we get some crazy hackers, which I really enjoyed. Stephanie still hasn’t completely committed to one of our guys, and I am shocked that Rex is still kicking in his soup can. I just love the wacky characters and Stephanie’s antics. I never get bored.

Bottom Line: Love this series. If you are looking for a cozy mystery series with fun characters, this is for you.

Linking up with Tanya to bring you our Amazon purchases for April. We didn’t have a ton this time.

Food Scale

I am tracking macros and had to whip out my food scale. I haven’t used it in so long, I realized it didn’t work anymore. A friend recommended this one to me, and they are currently running a coupon for it! Very affordable.

Mixed-Up Salt

My coach had this in her recommendations for salads. I love seasoning my salad, it makes such a difference and makes it closer to restaurant quality.

Pill Container

I have had to add some supplements to my daily lineup, and there are so many to keep up with now I decided the best way was to set myself up each week. This has been working great and was the perfect size to take on vacation with us as well. All my bottles live in a container in the pantry so they aren’t taking up valuable counter space and I pull them out Sunday mornings and do the lineup for the week.

Tap Shoes

Zoe goes through dance shoes so quickly. I usually have to buy several pairs of both tap and ballet shoes each season. One day she woke up and didn’t fit in her old ones anymore, so I ran to Target to buy some before class that night. Worst mistake ever. She got about 4-5 classes out of them before the taps fell off BOTH shoes. Such junk. Target has been a major disappointment for a lot of things this year. Enter Amazon. I usually get her tap shoes from here and they last as long as they fit her feet. I have never had the taps come off before.

Shower Gel

This has become a regular purchase for me. Love this scent and the clean ingredients. I no longer use any synthetic fragrance products on my skin. Bath & Body Works and other brands like that are total garbage and full of hormone and endocrine disrupters. It is amazing how much of a difference I have seen since changing over to cleaner products.

I didn’t realize until today that Mother’s Day is next weekend!!! It comes early this year it seems. I always love throwing together a little wish list. Right now I am in desperate need of some summer shoes. I purged so many last year that were very worn.

Raw-Edge Hem Tank // Half Baked Harvest Cookbook

Bauble Bar Custom Bracelet Zoe’s name// Stack Bracelet to go with Custom Bracelet // Pink Slides

Gold Slides //Tan Slides

What do you have your eye on for your wish list this year? What are you getting your mom?

I have so much I want to update on. I hope to come back Monday and talk about our vacation, and have a life update sometime soon as well! Not to mention it will also be time to hit you all with a book post, I have read a few good ones this month. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday!

We got Zoe’s dance pictures back this week, oh my goodness!!! Speaking of dance, I have several friends out there who have girls that just started. Heads up on the Target tap shoes…they suck!!! If you look super closely in the red outfit photo, you can see her tap has come loose on the foot in the back. She has only worn these shoes maybe 5 or 6 times. Once that tap comes loose, they’re done. Even though they look brand new everywhere else. I had grabbed them in a rush one week, as it seems we grew out of our old shoes overnight and I didn’t want to wait for shipping from somewhere else. Never again.

This weekend we have a little trip planned, an egg hunt and of course Easter on Sunday. I cannot believe it is Easter already! Luckily, I had been collecting things here in there over the last few months so I didn’t have any last minutes scrambling for Easter basket items. I did drop the ball slightly on egg hunt stuffers. I don’t like to do tons of candy, and Zoe has already done two egg hunts that were mostly candy. I went by Dollar Tree yesterday to grab some temporary tattoos or stickers or something, and the place was RIDICULOUS. There was a line of at least 20 people to check out at one register. No thanks! I think I am going to just stick dollar bills in some of the eggs.

Favorite Finds: These shoes have memory foam and are the most comfortable heels I have tried in awhile. I have plantar facetious and a very high arch, shoes are quite the struggle for me. They aren’t too heavy, even though they look chunky. I’m not saying I will walk around all day in them, but I can definitely wear them for awhile and be ok.

I also really like these camis. They are under $20, look great under blazers or even alone. They have an adjustable strap and have a silky/satin finish front and back. I find that a lot of tanks from Loft and other places are cotton in the back. I like this better. There is a little slit on the sides that makes the fit super flattering. They run true to size as far as camis go. I tend to order a size up for length, and I like a looser fit. The “purple” is more of a pink color to me, just like in the photo. The other colors I have seen in person and are true to their representation online.

Favorite Recipe: These hot honey chicken bowls look good, right? I think I might try them for lunch or dinner soon.

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Hey there! It has been awhile since I have been able to get my life together for a Friday post. What’s new around here?

We got Zoe’s spring school pictures back last week, along with her cap and gown pictures. Cap and gown, shut up!!! I am so not ready for this. Then she had her dance recital pictures last week as well. See those girls line up for their first group photo made me teary. Her first two years of dance were robbed of group photos because of covid policies, but there are still five of the original girls she started with in her current class. They have grown so much over the last three years. Most of the girls in the class will receive three year trophies this year as well. I can’t wait to see Zoe accept hers!

I had an appointment with a functional medicine doctor. After years of struggling with problems and not getting real answers or solutions from my regular ob/gyn and being told to just go back on birth control…I switched to another ob/gyn. Guess what her solution was? An IUD. No thanks. Last week I received a new diagnosis, a whole new diet to follow, a few supplements to try, lots of bloodwork taken, suggestions on things to do when certain problems arise, and not one pharmaceutical band aid. She spent so much time listening to me, and talking to me about different things. It was just on a whole different level than any care I have had before. I say all of this to say, you have to be your own advocate when it comes to healthcare. Do your own research and if you don’t feel like you are getting the best care, go somewhere else!!!

I am happy to report that after only one week of these supplements and lifestyle changes, I am down 5 pounds, the pain in my side is gone, and I have noticed a few other changes as well. Amazing. Truly amazing.

Favorite Finds: I signed up for Nordstrom’s Trunk Club. I have a whole post coming on my thoughts and experience with it, as well as sharing my entire trunk and the whole process. The whole thing was life changing, and I can’t believe I waited so long to try it. I wanted to share what I ended up keeping.

These Mother jeans are absolute perfection. I am not sure if I would have picked them out on my own? But that is exactly why I chose to do Trunk Club. To have someone tell me what would look good on me. They fit so good, and they go with SO MANY OUTFITS! I have tried them with sneakers, sandals and heels. Casual clothes, blazers, fun tops. Everything. The length is so flattering and they have just enough distressing to look edgy and stylish without being crazy. I am so happy with these. I can’t find the exact pair I have, but these are similar cut and style in dark wash, light wash and white.

I have never owned a Rails shirt before, and now that I have this blue one…..I am not sure I can go back to any other brand for button downs. This is so good and worth every penny. I have already worn it, and have plans to style it a few ways. It is light enough to wear in the spring down here in the south and I had it on the other day all day working from home. It was so soft, I forgot I was wearing a real shirt and not one of my usual sweatshirts.

This black and white blouse isn’t something I would have picked for myself, but wow. I tried it on and Chris has walked in and was like….you’re keeping that! The vneck, sleeve length and the front cut of the shirt is super flattering on. Can be dressed up or down.

And this Caslon tshirt is such a wardrobe basic staple. So soft and so many uses.

Favorite Recipe: I made these cajun chicken bites last week and paired them with a salad. Dinner was ready in under 15 minutes and was delicious and healthy. Boom! (They were quite spicy, definitely cut down on a few of the spices if that isn’t your jam.)

Favorite Funnies:

Linking up for Friday Favorites, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!