50 Book Challenge- Book 1 Daughter of the Blood

Staying true to one of my goals this year, I have completed the first book of my 50 book challenge. The first book of the year was Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop. Normally, I don't read these kinds of books but Raph suggested it and since I have ran out of all my own books to read, I gave it a try. This book is awesome and I am very upset that I can't pick up the second of the black jewels trilogy from the library until tomorrow. :(

This is what the publisher has to say about the book:
"Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions. Now the Dark Kingdom readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But she is still young, still open to influence-and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the darkness. Three men-sworn enemies-know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love-and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining..."

Wow. That is really all I have to say about this book. It is riddled with magic, sex, backstabbing and violence- many of the things that make up a good story. The only gripe that I have about the entire book is that the way it is written, sometimes you feel like this is present day while other times you feel like you are supposed to be in medieval times. That gets a little confusing but with all the great characters and background, it will seem like a small price to pay.

For those that love a good fantasy, I highly recommend this book. Since I am now taking public transportation to school instead of driving, that gives me 2 hours four days a week to read. I was a little shocked that it only took me 8 days to read this book as I am dyslexic and a slow reader because of it. The book is a good a good 400 pages, longer than what I usually can read in that amount of time. I loved this book and will more than likely read it again once this challenge is over.

Back to School

Tomorrow I will be starting back to school since my Hail was born. I am a little excited and nervous all the same. While I am no stranger to being a student, I also am taking courses that I am unfamiliar with. Mostly first aid, health and then a virtual assisting course that will drastically help my current position. Next quarter, I am really interested in taking a course in professional blogging as I feel it could strongly help me gain readership, learn about successful blogging to make money and many other aspects that I probably have over looked. Right now, I mostly blog for fun, so it would be awesome to step that up a notch and learn to make money from it as well.

I thought that one of by biggest challenges in going to school was going to be transportation and childcare. Luckily for me, neither are going to be an issue. Portland has great public transportation with the light rail and bus system. I will be taking both to get back and forth to school. I was able to get a quarterly bus pass for $160- a $10 savings but definitely cheaper than putting gas in the car to go back and forth.

Also, luckily for me, Raph is going to watch Hail Mondays and Wednesdays while I am in school since he doesn't have to be on campus those days, Tuesdays and Thursdays when we both have to be on campus for classes, Raph's younger sister Rachael, whom Hail adores, will be watching Hail. We agreed to pay her $20 a week which isn't really a lot but it is only 2 hours a week as Raph will be with him one of those hours before he leaves for school. That doesn't sound too bad to me and it's pocket change.

I'm definitely excited to be learning something new this quarter and I hope that it goes successfully.