WARNING: RANT & SPOILERS

Please read the above sentence. If you loved The Cursed Child and/or if you haven’t read it yet and don’t want the story to be spoiled for you, stop reading now. You’ve been forewarned.


I want to start off by saying that I went into reading Harry Potter and The Cursed Child knowing that J.K. Rowling didn’t write it herself (did you know that? If not, you should it explains a lot), but she did give it her blessing, and I went into it with an open mind. I was very excited to be transported back into the HP universe and brought back to my childhood and teenage years of wonderment, ready to be immersed in wizardry, spells, Hogwarts, the lot of it, 19 years later.

It started off fine, I had no issues reading the screenplay style and it picked up right where The Deathly Hallows left off on Platform 9 ¾ left off with Harry talking to Albus Severus about how it would be okay if he was sorted into Slytherin. From there we’re introduced to Rose, Hermione and Ron’s daughter, cousin to Albus, and Scorpius, son of Draco Malfoy. Rose tries to warn Albus away from socializing or being seen with Scorpius because there are rumors surrounding him that he is the son of Voldemort -which right off the bat I was like what? Anyway- but Albus makes his own choice to stay with him on the train on their first trip to Hogwarts, Rose leaves, and it’s the start of a long friendship.

So, Albus gets sorted into Slytherin (shocker, I know), and a few years go by and Albus and Scorpius have become great friends. He resents that Harry is his father and he’s very emo. Scorpius is basically a mish-mash of Ron & Hermione’s personalities, nothing like Draco at all. One summer while Albus is home, Amos Diggory, Cedric’s dad - you remember him from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire don’t you? - pays a visit to Harry asking him to use a time-turner that the Ministry is rumored to have confiscated (as all others were destroyed after the previous war) to go back and save Cedric. Harry denies its existence and says no. Delphi, Amos’ niece (or is she!?) pops up and gets into Albus’s head and basically convinces him that he should go back in time and save Cedric. It will be his big moment and maybe that can gain some respect with his father. He and Scorpius get the time-turner, go back, manage to screw everything up, have to get help to fix everything, and then everything’s right in the end. Along the way we find out Voldemort did have a kid, and it was Delphi all along, and her mom was Bellatrix….


1. Voldemort having a kid at all brings up so many issues I have a hard time figuring out where to start. He thought he was so high and mighty would he have really brought himself low enough to breed with someone? And yes, that’s exactly how he would have thought of it, breeding. He thought he was better than everyone.

2. Bellatrix being the mother - I mean, if it had to be anyone, I can see why she would be the choice, but still, see my above point.

3. Her giving birth at Malfoy manor before the battle of Hogwarts - again, plausible, but Draco not knowing about it? His parents were living in the house at the time. How could they not know and why wouldn’t they have, at some point, not spilled the beans? It’s pretty freaking hard to hide a pregnancy for 9 months, plus a birth, and with Bellatrix being a top ranking Death Eater, how did NO ONE talk? And why, when Hermione used polyjuice potion to become her in The Deathly Hallows to get into Gringotts, didn’t anyone question her not being pregnant?


Depending on your theory of time travel, and sticking with J.K.’s own from Prisoner of Azkaban, Albus and Scorpius going back in time in the Goblet of Fire MAKES NO SENSE. It would have come up in the narrative! They directly interacted with Hermione, yet she has no recollection of this? More plot holes!

Overall, I think it might make a good play and would be fun to see live in person and it’s the only reason I’m giving it 3 stars. Mostly it read like a piece of fan fiction. I’m kind of surprised it received her approval as it was. The more I think about it the more upset I get. I know I can’t be the only one! I’ve heard mixed reviews, and I think most people that consider themselves to be huge fans feel similarly.


Okay, rant over.

What did you think? Do you agree? Did you love The Cursed Child? Did you hate it? Are you in between?

Nothing says Happy Birthday like summoning the spirits of your dead relatives.

I fall to my knees. Shattered glass, melted candles and the outline of scorched feathers are all that surround me. Every single person who was in my house – my entire family — is gone.

Alex is a bruja, the most powerful witch in a generation…and she hates magic. At her Deathday celebration, Alex performs a spell to rid herself of her power. But it backfires. Her whole family vanishes into thin air, leaving her alone with Nova, a brujo boy she can’t trust. A boy whose intentions are as dark as the strange markings on his skin.

The only way to get her family back is to travel with Nova to Los Lagos, a land in-between, as dark as Limbo and as strange as Wonderland…

Beautiful Creatures meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone with an infusion of Latin American tradition in this highly original fantasy adventure.
The opening scene of Labyrinth Lost hooked me immediately, it got a little shaky in the first third, but after that it was smooth sailing.

I enjoyed Labyrinth Lost because it opened up an unknown world to me. I know very little of this spiritual culture and their superstitious beliefs. Alex and the women in her family are bruja’s, each possessing some form of magic. On their Deathday celebration, they bind to their family and fully embrace their powers. Unfortunately Alex thinks she’s cursed and wants nothing to do with her magic, so she tries to cast a counter-spell to rid herself of her magic and everything goes sideways.

She’s pulled into a world she once thought was make-believe, used as children’s bedtime stories to make them behave. Once there, she’s forced to face demons, the river of the dead, an unholy queen of the underworld, and betrayals of the worst kind. It’s not all bad though. She comes out stronger for it in the end and finds those who matter most to her. She also finds herself along the way.

I appreciated Córdova’s character development. I thought I would be tired of a story where the main character has this amazing gift and doesn’t want it. Way to be unappreciative of this wonderful power the universe has seen fit to bestow upon you, but Alex actually seems to have a legitimate reason. Although it’s only hinted at in LL, I think it will be fully explored in book 2.
While I wouldn’t rate Labyrinth Lost as excellent, I’d give it a solid 4 stars. It held my attention and took some interesting twists. I think this would be a good read for those who enjoy fantasy, something you can probably breeze through in a weekend.

Available September 6, 2016

July, also known as my birthday month, and as well as the month in which our nation celebrates its independence. If you’re anything like me, you’re trying to find ways to stay indoors because the 5 days in a row of triple digits with no pool or a break in the heat in sight is no bueno. I’ll stick with iced coffee and my air conditioning, thank you.





The Crown’s Game was a quick and easy read. The premise was great, but I wasn’t as enthralled as I hoped I would be. Skye’s writing and world building is beautiful, as wells as her dedication to the time and Russian heritage, but I just didn’t feel much for the characters. I also found it to be predictable.

I’m pretty sure I’d read The Lucky One before this because it was very familiar to me, but I’m not 100%. It could be because I’ve seen the movie, but the movie isn’t exactly the same, but who knows. It’s a good campy romance novel like most Nicholas Sparks books. This one didn’t make me cry at least.

I fell 3 weeks behind on my Steotchalong (mentioned in June’s recap) due to life’s events mentioned below, but I did my damnedest to catch up, and made it! That was tough. It took a lot of sitting and a stiff neck, but I managed it. Tyrion has a neck and a full head of hair, a goatee, and a shirt!


Look at all that shiny metallic gold threat. It’s a pain in the butt to stitch with! Thread Heaven is a life saver when it comes to working with metallic thread. Also, I will never work with DMC metallic ever again and will only work with Kreinik braided metallics. They don’t fray like DMC and they’re much easier to anchor to the needle.

Sadly I haven’t touched my Hogwarts Crest *pout* I probably won’t be finished this year as I’d hoped. Too many other things going on. I haven’t touched my other secret project mentioned in other monthly recaps either. I guess it could be worse; I could have no projects or hobbies.

July was incredibly busy for me. I know I say this every month, but this month especially. It was my birthday the first week and I turned the big three-oh. Oh lordy… Don’t judge me for still reading loads of YA, it’s my favorite. My husband surprised me with a whole spa package and the above pictured totally awesome Harry Potter Quidditch set for my b-day. He totally gets me. My mom found my Top-10 Birthday Wishlist post and sent me a stack of books (also pictured above)! Overall I’d say I had an awesome 30th!


I went to my future sister-in-law’s bachelorette party weekend where we attended a Giant’s game and spent a day wine tasting in Sonoma.
While everyone else was at SDCC, my husband and I made our annual trek to the state fair. I know it’s pretty much the same every year, but I love it, and it’s a tradition now. By 10am, it was 85 deg, so naturally we started the day with milkshakes. I had Reece’s Peanut butter and my husband had Oreo. The day topped out at 104 deg! I didn’t win big at the horse races but we have a good time with family and trying not to melt. After the fair, I went to a Sacramento Rivercats game, where I also proceeded to melt.


HAS ANYONE ELSE DISCOVERED STRANGER THINGS?! I binge watched it in only 3 days. Holy man it was so good! I may re-watch it just because I couldn’t get enough! It was the first show in so long where all I wanted to do was sit and watch and do nothing else. Not play on my phone or even cross-stitch. Usually I have to be doing something while watching TV or a movie or I feel incredibly lazy or I get bored, but not with Stranger. It was just too good. If you haven’t watched yet, you totally should.