Hockey, but not

 

If All Else Sails
By Emma St. Clair
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication date:  August 5, 2025
Print length:  368 pages
ISBN-13:  978-1400346943

 Publisher’s Blurb:

In this grumpy-sunshine romance, school nurse Josie and her brother's best friend--hockey player Wyatt Jacobs--are tricked into spending a summer together that's anything but smooth sailing.

 When Josie's brother sends her to a random address for their (sometimes) annual Super Summer Sibling Extravaganza, she finds neither siblings nor extravaganzas. Instead, ends up at a run-down cottage on the Northern Neck of Virginia occupied by a hockey player she knows and loathes.

 A hockey player who isn't just one of her sports agent brother's clients. He's also his best friend. And Josie's sworn enemy.

 Oh--and her brother wants Josie to help Wyatt recover from his injury.

 Dragging grumpy hockey players to physical therapy is a far cry from bandaging skinned knees, but for the price her brother offers to pay, Josie is willing to try.

 Even if it means sharing what she dubs the quaint little murder cottage with Wyatt.

 Begrudgingly, Josie starts to see a little more of the man behind the grumpy exterior. And when she finds out he was supposed to sail the Intracoastal Waterway south to Savannah scattering his uncle's ashes, Josie surprises even herself by offering to be Wyatt's first mate.

 Smooth sailing is nowhere to be found, and Josie begins to wonder if they'll be able to make it home without killing--or kissing?--each other.

 And yet, the longer they share cramped quarters and canned food, the more of Wyatt's layers she peels back until Josie realizes she misunderstood him, their shared history, and perhaps herself as well.

 If you're a fan of closed-door romance with sizzling chemistry, laugh-out-loud banter, and relatable characters, this romance with enemies-to-lovers vibes is your perfect escape. Dive into the irresistible story of Wyatt and Josie as they navigate the rocky waters of their past, uncover hidden depths, and discover that sometimes love is found in the most unexpected places. With the delightful grumpy-sunshine dynamic and the swoon-worthy he-falls-first trope, If All Else Sails by USA TODAY bestselling author Emma St. Clair will keep you turning the pages late into the night.

 My Thoughts:

Emma St. Clair can be relied on to deliver imperfect people who aren’t just grumpy for the sake of grumpiness—they have reasons for the way they are. It’s those reasons and past hurts that get in the way of their HEAs until they can be acknowledged and worked on.

 That is the case in this book. Wyatt’s family dynamic has made him shun the spotlight, despite his fame. Josie has past trauma with athletes, which has led her to misjudge Wyatt from the very first time they met. Which is too bad, because for him, it was pretty close to love at first sight.

 So when Josie’s over-the-top charming brother coerces her into looking after Wyatt’s recovery from an off-the-rink injury, she’s not exactly happy about it. But she recognize that Wyatt is in a vulnerable place, so she stays.

 As they both work through their vulnerabilities, they end up confessing past traumas and hurts and finally (and it takes some time) work through just how much Josie has misjudged Wyatt over the years. She has to be willing to look at all their past interactions through a new lens.

 Of course, there are obstacles. They don’t live in the same city. Josie has a lot of insecurity about fitting the mold of a famous athlete’s girlfriend…if Wyatt even thinks of her that way. Those insecurities are an obstacle, but Josie is self-aware enough that they avoid the third-act breakup.

 Though this is billed as a standalone, it does have a connection to the Appies series, cowritten by St. Clair and Jenny Proctor (reviewed here). This is completely a good thing.

 This is petty, but the most annoying thing to me about this book is the way Josie goes all in on dressing up the dog. I just…don’t get the appeal.

 All told, this is another entertaining read from St. Clair, with all the banter, feelings, and character development that we’ve come to expect.

 Also—St. Clair is working on a playlist for the book. Keep your eyes peeled!

 Possible objectionable material:

Past death of a family member, including spreading their ashes. Family disfunction. Josie’s older brother is a “player”. Past sexual assault. Kissing. Unmarried people share a bed.

 Who might like this book:

There’s not really any hockey in this book, though the male protagonist is a hockey player. If you like books with cameos from familiar characters, this has it. It’s classic closed-door romance.

 Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

 #BookReview #NetGalley #ClosedDoorRomance #Appies #EmmaStClair #IfAllElseSails #RomCom @emmastclairauthor

"Flinch-free fiction"

There's another website out there for those who, like me, dislike getting into a book only to be slapped in the face by something they object to. We all have our own thresholds of what's okay and what's not, and many of us also like to preview books for our kids. Here's another site for those who are looking for some advance info on what's in a book. Clean Indie Reads

Drive-by Linkage

I don't think that being an adult means you have to stop reading children's or young adult fiction. Thus, I bring you Amazon's 100 Young Adult Books to Read in A Lifetime. I've read 36 and own a few more. Looks like I have some catching up to do!

Did you think I forgot?

Sorry about that. The beginning of school sucks up a lot of time. As soon as that was under control, I got pneumonia. Fun times. However...

Awesome post from The Christian Science Monitor for the top 10 books for toddlers. We've read all but one, and own most of them. How about you?

1. Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
2. Go, Dog, Go!, by P.D. Eastman
3. The Runaway Bunny,  by Margaret Wise Brown
4. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff
5. Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss
6. Good Night, Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann
7. Brown  Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin, Jr.
8. The Napping House, by Audrey Wood
9. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
10. The Monster at the End of This Book, by Jon Stone

Go see the original article for other suggestions! Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/2013/1106/Mom-s-top-10-book-list-for-toddlers/Goodnight-Moon-by-Margaret-Wise-Brown

Also, here's their list of 12 Best New Children's PIcture Books

Back soon. I promise.

Lists, Lists, Lists

It's beautiful, isn't it? That's a word cloud created by The Christian Science Monitor of books that appear most often on recommended reading lists for children. If you're unfamiliar with word clouds, the basic idea is that the books that are in the largest print are the ones that appear the most often on the various lists they used. This particular list encompasses multiple age groups.

There are literally thousands of recommended reading lists out there in the ether. School districts publish them. So do bookstores, libraries, and a multitude of organizations. Here is a "quick-and-dirty" list of some of my favorites. I only have time for brief comments right now, but I hope to revisit later with more detailed information.

Oprah is known for her ability to help a book shoot to the top of the bestseller list. Here, she offers lists by age group and subject, as well as tips on fostering reading.

The Modern Library has a list of what many of us might call "the classics," with experts and readers choosing the top 100 novels.

TED is known for its stimulating and thoughtful talks. Some of the TED bloggers offer their picks for summer reading. This covers a wide range of genres and subjects!

No one's more expert about books than the International Reading Association. Here, they offer books chosen by teachers, children, and young adults.

BYU's Harold B. Lee Library has a summer list of what I'd consider Young Adult choices. Don't miss those links on the right sidebar to more lists!

Bestselling author James Patterson is a big promoter of childhood reading. After all--he has to ensure an audience for his books when the current audience of adults dies! At Read Kiddo Read he offers lists of new and older books based on age range and interest.

Inside a Dog is a play on the Groucho Marx quote, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read." This Australian site features recommendations and reviews written by kids, for kids.

Compass Book Ratings and Facts on Fiction both take that step that so many parents have been hoping for--they actually give content ratings in some form, noting sexuality, violence, etc. The books range all over the map content and age wise, and the books reviewed are not extensive, but they're definitely worth a look.

And finally, check out The Book Genome Project. I haven't had much time to play here, but the idea is somewhat like Pandora--you enter the title of something you like, and the software generates a list of other books that there is a good chance you will enjoy. I definitely plan to spend some time investigating this one!

So there you have it. What's left? Book reviews, of course!

Choosing the right book--the technical stuff

There are a multitude of factors that go into choosing what to read. As adults, we often read the flap on the dust jacket or the back of a paperback book for a synopsis so we can decide if we're interested. Sometimes it's as easy as looking at the cover art (though, I should warn you, the cover artist has rarely read the book!). We talk to friends about what they're reading.

As parents/guiding adults, however, how do you know what book to give a child? After all, we don't want the book to be too hard or too easy, or the child will lose interest. We don't want to give them material that is developmentally inappropriate. What's a grownup to do?

To me, there are two different factors at work when choosing a book. One is the complexity of the text. How difficult is the vocabulary? Are the sentences long and complex, or short? How much text is there? What background knowledge is required to understand the text?

The other factor is content. What happens in the story? Is there mature subject matter? Is there sex, violence, drug use? After all, books don't come with content ratings like movies do--inadequate though they may be.

There are resources for all of these things. In this post, we'll focus on most of the first part--the text complexity. Background knowledge is a big topic all on its own, and will get its own post later.

There are many, many ways to determine the reading level of a book. For instance, Hoagie's Gifted gives over a dozen. Today, i'm going to focus on Lexile level. I made this choice for a few reasons. First, this is the level reference in the new  Common Core State Standards (yet another future post). Second, some libraries, including the one at my school, have begun using Lexile level stickers on the spines of their books to aid readers in their selection. If your school reports your child's reading level in another form, it can be converted to Lexile fairly easily.

So let's go to Lexile.com. Take some time and click around. Maybe watch some of the videos.

Are you back? Great! Here's some of the cool stuff that I like about using this website to help choose reading material for my child. That's on the "Find a Book" tab at the top of the page.

First, I don't  have to know my child's level. I can just answer two questions--my child's grade and whether the reading in that grade is too hard/just right/too easy. It's not perfect, but it's a good starting point. Then you can click boxes on what your child is interested in.

An alternative measure is to find a book that your child likes to read and search for it, then see what level that book is at.

"But wait!" you say. "My kid's favorite book isn't on there!" See that tab at the top that says "Lexile Analyzer"? It requires a (free) registration on the site, but you can enter some text from a book, article, or website, and the analyzer will give you the Lexile level. For example, I ran the text of this post so far through the analyzer, and it's a 760L. (Just as a point of reference, that used to be a 4-5 grade level, but is now midrange of a 2-3 grade level.)

Another nice thing about registering on the site is that you can create profiles. With those, you can create personalized reading lists.

At any rate, once you know at what approximate level your child reads, you can search within levels for books, or, if your child is interested in a book, you can check its level. For example, a friend's daughter was interested in a specific book. When I checked the Lexile, we discovered that it was enough above her current level that she would be frustrated, so my friend found a different book that covered the same ideas. Remember, we want our kids to stretch a little, but if a book is too challenging, they will be frustrated and lose interest. Enough frustration and we turn a child off reading.

Next: I've got a little list. No wait, I have a bunch of lists.