25 Jan 2025 21 Comments
in #jusjojan, #SoCS Tags: #jusjojan, #SoCS, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, In Line
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 25th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in line.” Use it any way you’d like! Enjoy!
We British do love a queue
No matter what it leads to
You'll find us in line
Come rain or shine
For want of something to do
Ritu 2025
I’m sorry, that was just silly. We don’t queue that much! (Or maybe we do, lol!)
24 Jan 2025 6 Comments
in #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Hobbies, Linda G Hill
Our prompt today comes to us from the wonderful mind of June. Thank you, June! Please be sure to visit June’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 24th, 2025 is “hobbies.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Hobbies are those things you do for fun. Activites that give you joy.
And my main hobby is reading.
I’ll be honest, it’s my only hobby, because I don’t have time to pursue others!
I’d love to take classes in photography. I’ve done online courses on calligraphy, I love baking and cooking. All could be classed as hobbies, but I don’t have the time, bar the cooking one, because, well, we do have to eat, to really get experimental!
What’s your hobby?
24 Jan 2025 8 Comments
in Reviews Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blog Tour, Blogger, Blogging, Book Review, Rachel's Random Resources, The Paris Chapter, Victoria Walters
Please join me on the blog tour for The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick
Can the future be rewritten?
On the verge of her second marriage, Carla Carter knows she’s finally found the one. She and her fiancé, Tom, met through Logical Love, a dating agency she founded for the pragmatically minded, and she’s confident that, together, they will dispel an old family curse claiming Carter women are unlucky in love.
But Carla’s highly superstitious family insists she visit a fortune teller before her big day, and the tarot cards reveal that a different man holds the key to Carla’s happiness – someone she met while travelling during a gap year, twenty-one years ago. This startling information spurs Carla to trace and revisit the ex-boyfriends she met during that time before she walks down the aisle.
From Barcelona to Amsterdam, Turkey to Paris, will Carla find her perfect match? And can a face from her past help Carla rewrite her entire family history, forever?
My Review
The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Aren’t we all guilty of a little ‘what if?’ in our lives?
This new Phaedra Patrick story hits the nail on the head with the concept.
Carla is once bitten, twice shy. Married and divorced, she is convinced that romance and her won’t meet, especially since the females in her family are cursed never to have a fulfilling relationship.
However, she decides she doesn’t believe in curses and finds herself a wonderful partner, through her own matchmaking company, Logical Love, where questionnaire answers match potentials with a compatibility percentage.
Almost on the eve of her wedding, her family ladies take her on a hen do, involving some mystical shenanigans which lead Carla to question her past and embark upon a journey of (re)discovery, travelling destinations she visited in Europe as a young woman, and meeting old flames…
A great concept, and many secrets unfold as Carla meets old faces anew, and begins to question her own feelings on love and how you meet ‘the one’.
Purchase Link – https://amzn.eu/d/gZ3M4Y8
Author Bio –
Phaedra Patrick is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, which has been translated into twenty-five languages worldwide. Her second novel, Rise and Shine Benedict Stone, was made into a Hallmark movie. An award-winning short story writer, she previously studied art and marketing and has worked as a stained glass artist, film festival organizer and communications manager. Phaedra lives in Saddleworth, UK, with her family.
Social Media Links –
https://www.instagram.com/phaedrapatrick/
https://www.instagram.com/headofzeus
https://www.facebook.com/phaedrapatrick/
24 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in Reviews Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blog Tour, Blogger, Blogging, Book Review, Rachel's Random Resources, The Paris Chapter, Victoria Walters
Please join me on the blog tour for The Paris Chapter by Victoria Walters
Can the city of love mend a broken heart?
Romance author Tessa Elliot has writer’s block, and worse – she isn’t sure she still believes in love. To heal her broken heart, she decides to go on the romantic break in Paris she’d booked before her world fell apart.
But when she arrives at the Airbnb, Tessa is stunned to find someone is already there. Her ex’s best friend Ethan has made himself at home, being told that the place would be empty.
As it’s Paris Fashion Week, and with no other options, they agree to share the apartment. Neither will be in the place much after all, with Ethan taking a cookery course and Tessa on a hard deadline to finish her novel.
But sharing close nights in a one bed apartment, there’s an undeniable pull towards one another.
Will Tessa be able open her heart, and her laptop, ever again?
A gorgeous romance set in the city of love, perfect for fans of Emily Henry and Christina Lauren
My Review
The Paris Chapter by Victoria Walters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve read a couple of Victoria Walters books and this one was an entertaining read, as were the others.
In The Paris Chapter, we follow romance author Tessa to Paris. She’s been betrayed and in her quest to find peace with her relationship status, and the belief in romance again, she uses a break that had been booked for her and her now ex-boyfriend, Joe. However, she arrives to find that her cheating ex is even more of a git as he had passed on the break to his best friend.
Tessa is stuck in Paris during the height of Paris Fashion Week in a one-bedroom apartment with a rather hunky chef named Ethan.
I have to say I really enjoyed the close proximity nature of this story; we all know what we wanted to happen.
There is a decent enough steam factor within the story too – Phew!
One thing – I did not like Joe and couldn’t bring myself to believe that Tessa would even try to possibly rekindle anything with that wally.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for an ARC.
Purchase Link – https://mybook.to/theparischapterbook
Author Bio –
Victoria Walters is the author of both cosy crime and romantic novels, including the bestselling Glendale Hall series. She has been chosen for WHSmith Fresh Talent, shortlisted for two RNA novels and was picked as an Amazon Rising Star. Previously published by Hera, she is now writing romantic comedies for Boldwood
Social Media Links –
Twitter: @Vicky_Walters
Instagram: @VickyJWalters
Newsletter Sign Up: https://bit.ly/VictoriaWaltersNews
Bookbub profile: @vixw2000
23 Jan 2025 13 Comments
in #jusjojan Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Education, Emphasis, jusjojan25, Linda G Hill, news, SEN, SEND, writing
Today, our prompt is courtesy of our darling Dar. Thank you, Dar! Please be sure to visit Dar’s blog to read her posts and say hello. And follow her while you’re there if you’re not already.
Your prompt for JusJoJan January 23rd, 2025 is “emphasis.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Ooh, interesting word!
I don’t know if enough emphasis is on the right areas of improvement in education, right now, in the UK.
Sure, they want to overhaul SEND provision (that is the provision for children with Special Educational Needs).
That would be brilliant, and a much-needed overhaul, as the present system ain’t working, my friends. Ask me, an experienced EYFS teacher, who has seen the steady changes in expectations, provision, budget, and level of need itself.
Who knows why it is happening, but every year, over the last five years we have seen an upturn in the amount of children requiring a lot more support, joining the Reception classes. But nothing has changed to support them.
In fact, those specialist provisions for children with more complex needs are shutting, and this means those children still need the education they are entitled to, but the environments they are forced to attend aren’t suitable for them.
Overstimulation, dysregulation, insufficient staff to support individual needs, stress on both children and their families, as well as the staff who are trying to cope with the usual cohort, plus a myriad of needs that they may not actually be trained to specifically support.
And then there are those children with what would be classed as low-level need. They still need individual support, however, with the majority of staff trying to juggle the needs of the complex SEN pupils, as well as teach a whole class, they get less attention.
It’s not fair on any of us. We feel, as staff, that we are failing. The parents feel school is failing them. That child is being failed because they cannot access what they need.
So, here’s hoping the emphasis is on funding and improving the provision, so we can truly support all children.
(Oh, and while we’re at it, that National Curriculum? It needs a total overhaul! The Covid generation will never ‘catch up’. We need to meet their needs where they are, and progress from that. New, realistic targets and goals, please.)
I’m not asking for too much, am I?
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