December Minireviews – Part 4

Oh look, more Christmas fluff from December!!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie – 5*

//published 1938//

I’m sure I must have read this one in the distant past as it was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t remember any of the details as to how it was going to come together.  When the grumpy, selfish, miserly, annoying patriarch of the family is murdered there is no lack of suspects from his own household – but he was killed in a locked room.  Absolutely loved the way everything came together in this one.

The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox – 3.5*

//published 2021//

I’m a BOTM member but skip a lot of months. I decided to go ahead and get December’s book, though, because who doesn’t need another holiday read?  This was a fun concept.  Identical twins decide to switch lives for reasons that somewhat made sense within the context of the story haha  My main frustration with this one – one sister has broken up with her long-time boyfriend, but he isn’t getting the picture.  When that sister switches out, she asks her replacement sister (supposedly the more “go get ’em” one) to really emphasize to this guy that things are over – but instead she waffles and puts him off all the time instead of just saying really basic things like “I appreciate you bringing me this coffee, but we aren’t dating any more and you don’t get to decide if I want to talk to another dude or not” like oh my gosh.  Meanwhile, the big-city sister has been working on a tv show with an absolutely horrific jerk of a cohost.  I found it a bit unbelievable that in 2021 this guy would get away with overt bullying and harassment, like constantly touching her, rubbing her shoulders, putting his arm around her, commenting on her appearance, etc etc, or that she would actually have put up with that.  All in all, the story worked and I did enjoy it, but the passive attitude of both sisters about their situations really frustrated me a lot of the time.

Mistletoe at Moonglow by Deborah Gainer – 3*

//published 2015//

This one honestly just had me feeling super confused.  It starts as though the reader should already know the background of the location/characters, so it’s possible that there was another book or series before this one?? But who knows.  It takes place at this inn in a small Montana.  The inn is owned by an older lady whose name I can’t remember, and she has this crazy chick named Mist (yes, seriously) working for her.  The two women are prepping the inn for their Christmas guests.  The owner tells Mist about the upcoming guests, some of whom have stayed there before, and their various backgrounds, most of which have some tragedy involved.  Mist is this weird “mystical” character who always seems to magically know what everyone wants or needs, cooks elaborate dinners for the restaurant part of the hotel with seemingly no effort, and sort of floats around vaguely from place to place.  However, we’re reassured that she is NOT magic, she just listens to people, and hears their hearts, so in a weird way this book felt a little like it was gently scolding me, the reader, for not being as hospitable, calm, and mind-reader-y as Mist, because she’s just a regular person who manages to do all these things, so why don’t you, o reader??  Maybe I’m broken, but I honestly kept wondering if Mist was smoking weed or something, because she really had a chill, no worries surfer-dude vibe except with out “hey dude” jargon.  Nothing ever rattled he and she was always prosing on about basically vibing with the universe.  The guests arrive and stay in their perfect rooms that have weird little things in them that they exactly need because Mist didn’t read their minds before they got there but somehow still knew exactly, like, what kind of flower is their very favorite and what kind of chocolate they love, and then… literally nothing happens.  Everyone eats the perfect meals that Mist has prepared and comes together to celebrate Christmas, including opening the handmade gifts that Mist perfectly crafted for each of them that exactly speaks to their heart in just the way they need it to because it only takes Mist 24 hours or less to know all about a person’s soul (AND make them a gift!), so why can’t YOU, o reader, make perfect gifts for your loved ones that you have known all your life??  Everyone basically is like, “oh this place is so perfect and healing, all my tragic problems like my son dying and my husband leaving me and getting cancer have all just magically gone away thanks to Mist’s beautiful gifts and the way she’s shown us all the True Meaning of Christmas (TM)!”  I can see how some people found Mist to be this special, inspiring character, but her constant life philosophies, her “silent footsteps,“ and the way literally nothing flapped her at all just low-key annoyed me the entire book.

The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie – 4*

//published 1960//

Like I said, I wish these special editions were more focused on full novels instead of short story collections.  This collection was originally put together by Christie herself, but a couple of the stories were farmed out (by HarperCollins) into Midwinter Murder, which I had read earlier in the month.  The confusing part was that the versions weren’t exactly the same!  The two overlapping stories were the title mystery and one called something like “The Baghdad Chest.”  In the pudding tale, here it is much more fleshed out, with more background and other characters, while the Midwinter Murder version was shorter and not as interesting.  In the Midwinter Murder version of the Chest story, the story is told by Hastings.  In the Christmas Pudding edition, it’s told in the third person and Poirot spends a lot of time lamenting the fact that Hastings isn’t around because he would really enjoy the story!  The rest of the stories included were perfectly good short stories, but weren’t remotely Christmasy or wintery, so that was a bit of a letdown.  All in all, good stories, but it seems like Christie has written enough that HarperCollins should be able to make these lovely special editions without repeating themselves!

One More For Christmas by Sarah Morgan – 4*

//published 2020//

Another lovely tale from Sarah Morgan that focused more on the relationship between two adult daughters and their mother than it did on the romance (although the romance was fun, too).  I feel like our current society is prone to label everyone who doesn’t agree with you or who ever hurt your feelings as “toxic” and then write them off forever.  And while sometimes you do need to make the giant step of cutting someone off, so many times reconciliation and forgiveness are possible in so many cases.  Here, the two adult daughters have a lot of deep hurts from their mother, but when the mother has an accident and starts rethinking many of her life choices (although they seemed the best to her at the time) she desperately wants to reach out and reconnect with her estranged daughters.  Both daughters struggle with whether or not they should even let their mother try to come back into their lives, and how that should look.  All of this is handled well – it doesn’t become super dark and heavy, but doesn’t completely gloss over the difficulties of a relationship that has always been complicated.  I think that’s why I enjoy Morgan’s books – she isn’t afraid to tackle some harder family themes, but doesn’t allow them to drag the entire story down in a depressing spiral of hopelessness like so many stories (both women’s fiction and literary fiction… basically all those books that say A NOVEL on the front) do.  My only real issue with this one is that one of the daughters has a daughter of her own.  Growing up, the daughters were never allowed to believe in Santa, and the daughter is determined that her little one will always be able to believe in the “magic of Christmas” to the point that she is basically obsessive about her little girl believing in Santa and spends so much time agonizing and worrying about whether or not her mother will tell the little girl that Santa isn’t real.  It’s all this huge drama and just… I don’t think Santa = Christmas magic.  We never believed in Santa growing up (although our parents also told us we weren’t allowed to tell our friends he wasn’t real) – but Christmas was always incredibly magical in our household.  I didn’t like this concept that Santa was the be-all end-all for Christmas magic and Christmas would be RUINED if Santa wasn’t real.  Saying that all Christmas magic is pinned on a character who isn’t actually real, to me, implies that Christmas magic isn’t real, either, which just isn’t true.  But anyway, all in all I really did enjoy this one.  There was a splash of romance, a happily married couple, and a lot of really good discussions about family and forgiveness, all in a fun Christmas setting.

December Minireviews – Part 3

Am I writing as many of these posts on Monday as I can, and scheduling them to post throughout the week?  Yes, yes I am!  I am going to catch up!!!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren – 3.5*

//published 2020//

This one was perfectly fine, but it weirdly felt not-quite-gimmicky enough, if that makes sense.  If you’re going to do a Groundhog Day thing, then you should do it more than just like, three times.  I also was a little confused about what the “message” was supposed to be… I guess the universe just wants the MC to “be happy”??  Or something??  While I was actually reading it, though, I enjoyed it just fine, and it did check off some pesky time-travel-y bingo squares for all my holiday bingos, so there is that!

The Birds’ Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggins – 3.5*

//published 1886//

This is classic late-1800s reading material here – the dear, sweet, girl not long for this world, who does her best to make Christmas a little better for her impoverished neighbors.  While it was a little over-the-top with the sweetness, it was still a perfectly lovely little story, even if it was really sad.  I wasn’t surprised to find out that this was originally intended as a play – it definitely has that vibe about it.

Finding Christmas by Karen Schaler – 3.5*

//published 2019//

Another one that I struggled with a little.  Emmie has an amazing Christmas getaway planned with her boyfriend, including a scavenger hunt with clues for him to follow so that he will end up at a magical Christmas village where she has reserved a spot for them at a B&B and has loads of fun holiday activities planned.  She’s excited about introducing her to a season that means a lot to her, especially since it helps her cherish the memories of her parents who have passed away.  But things get a little mixed up, and the wrong guy follows the clues – Sam writes detective novels, but he’s been stuck ever since his sister died of cancer the year before.  He thinks the clues are a set-up by his agent to help get him back in the groove.  What with weather and other things, Emmie and Sam end up spending a lot of the week together, which was fine – except this was one of those borderline-cheating books, since Emmie is still in a relationship with her boyfriend, a relationship that, until this week, she thought was really serious/heading towards marriage.  Even though “nothing happens” I still didn’t like the vibe.  Schaler is also the author of a few Hallmark movie/books, and it was pretty eye-roll-y when she had Emmie talking about Schaler’s books and movies in this book, referring to them as “Christmas classics”.  All in all, another perfectly fine but not amazing holiday read.

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss – 3.5*

//published 2020//

It’s funny because this one is a reread – I really enjoyed it last year so I decided to read it again this year, but actually didn’t enjoy it as much this time around.  The overall story was still really enjoyable and some of the dates humorous, but I was more aware of how it really felt like Kate’s best friend/secret crush is kind of a user… he’s always expecting her to help him with the cafe, or do some more baking for him, or run errands for him, etc.  There was one scene in particular where she is on her way back home late at night and is exhausted and thinking about how excited she is to go to bed… and Matt basically waylays her and guilt trips her into coming to help him do some more baking, and it felt kind of manipulative.  I think this story would have benefitted a lot from getting Matt’s perspective, as that’s part of the problem – we’re only in Kate’s head, so it’s hard to tell what Matt is really thinking, or what is motivations really are.  I did enjoy rereading this one, but I’m not sure it’s going to become an annual tradition.

A Christmas to Remember by Jenny Hale – 3.5*

//published 2019//

I realize all these books are pretty predictable, but this one felt extra predictable.  Girl goes to work as a nanny for a rich guy who is always busy at work… gee, I wonder what is going to happen next?  In this one, the dude is divorced, which honestly felt weird just because why does he need a nanny when his kids don’t even live with him??  He also has an awesome family… so again, why does he need a nanny??  It wasn’t a terrible read, but I kind of ho-hummed my way through it.

December Minireviews – Part 2

Can you tell that my life at work is slowing down??  How many days in a row is this??

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Christmas at Holiday House by RaeAnne Thayne – 4*

//published 2020//

Thayne has become another go-to romance author for me.  Her books are super low-angst and just have pleasant characters and reasonable situations.  In this one, Abby (a registered nurse) agrees to go stay with her friend’s grandma, who recently took a fall down the stairs.  Abby, a widow with a young son, is getting ready to move from one state to another and has several weeks off around the holidays, so it all works out.  Once she arrives at Holiday House, she finds out that the grandma was planning to have this huge Christmas tour fundraiser, and finds herself getting involved in decorating and organizing the event.  The synopsis makes it sound like the grandma’s grandson, Ethan, is kind of a jerk about the whole thing, but actually the level of concern he showed for his grandma made perfect sense – he’s just worried that she’s overdoing it to the determent of her health.  Nothing crazy in this one, but an enjoyable story with likable characters.

The Quiet Little Woman by Louisa May Alcott – 3.5*

This is actually a collection of three short stories, all of which were perfectly fine but trended towards Alcott’s moralistic side with some heavy-handed lessons.  However, they were all short, easy reads, and kind of an interesting look at the time they were published.

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie – 4*

//published 1937//

This one isn’t remotely Christmasy, but it was December’s book for the Agatha Christie club.  Like most of Christie’s books, this one was a reread for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I did also have to look up the basics on playing bridge, because it’s a huge part of the plot.  In the beginning, Poirot meets a rich, self-indulgent fellow who, through the course of the evening, tells Poirot that he enjoys collecting rare things.  Some of his collections consist of information and knowledge rather than items, including, according to him, at least four people he knows who have successfully murdered someone.  This fellow gets the brainy idea that he will have a dinner party.  To it, he invites the four supposed murderers, along with four detective-types – Poirot, Colonel Race, Superintendent Battle, and Mrs. Oliver (writer of detective stories).  After dinner, two tables are made up for bridge.  The four suspects play in one room while the four others play in another.  Meanwhile, the host sits by the fire and enjoys himself.  But at the end of the night, he’s dead.  There was a lot of fun in this one, the obvious fact that one of these four people murdered him, the delving into everyone’s backstories to try and find out if they really had committed a murder in the past, the complicated connections between them.  Other than the fact that I kind of needed to know how to play bridge for some of the plot points to make sense, this was an excellent read.

Starry Night by Debbie Macomber – 3.5*

//published 2013//

Macomber is one of those authors whose books always sound like I’m going to enjoy them but then when I actually read them, they just don’t quite hit the spot.  Starry Night was one of those – not a bad story, exactly, but just a little too melodramatic.  It’s painfully obvious what the Big Drama is going to be later, to the point that I was dreading it so much that it was hard for me to enjoy the story.  The whole thing is the female MC wanting to interview the male MC, who’s this crazy recluse.  After they get to know each other, despite knowing that interviewing him could literally change the entire course of her career, the dude still refuses to let her publish an interview with him, to the point that it really felt like he was just being a jerk for no reason, which meant I didn’t really like him all that well.  This wasn’t a bad one-off read, but it did kind of cement to me the fact that Macomber just isn’t an author for me.

One Charmed Christmas by Sheila Roberts – 3.5*

//published 2020//

This one was a 100% mixed bag that I struggled to rate.  Catherine, an older widow, is disappointed because her adult children and their children have decided to go other places for the Christmas holidays.  This was the first part that immediately didn’t make sense – everyone literally acted like there were zero other options for a time to get together and celebrate Christmas.  Maybe it’s just because I grew up in a family with multiple Christmas get-togethers, but there are other options besides Christmas morning??  You could get together before they go out of town, after they get back from being out town, like literally any time??  It wasn’t like they all lived far away and couldn’t make the trip – they live in the same town, but are going to travel away for Christmas.  I was so confused!  Catherine is all sad and disappointed that she won’t be there when her grandchildren open their gifts… so why not open them some time when she is there?!?!!?  Catherine also spends a lot of time blaming herself because the Christmas before this one was the first one after her husband died, and he died right before Christmas, so basically last year’s Christmas was super depressing.  And instead of being like “oh wow I was going through literally the hardest time of my entire life so maybe my jerk-face kids should have been a little more understanding” she spends all this time going on about how she ruined their holiday and no wonder they don’t want to spend this one with her.  Oh my gosh.  ANYWAY so her best friend convinces her to go with her on a cruise through the Christmas villages somewhere in Europe, like Germany or somewhere, up some famous river, I don’t remember.  Catherine goes and so we also meet all these random people on the boat and all their little stories, most of which were perfectly fine, but there were other weird things.  Like the one girl is in her 20s and is a hypochondriac so she’s decided the best thing she can do is marry a doctor.  She meets this doctor old enough to be her dad on the cruise and decides she should marry him.  Okay… except then this literally perfect man (young, hot, kind, sweet, and freaking OWNS A CHOCOLATE COMPANY) really likes her and keeps trying to date her and she keeps blowing him off so she can keep flirting with the old guy??  I’m sorry, this felt 100% unrealistic and also kind of dumb.  In the end, I liked a lot of the characters and enjoyed the overall story, but there were also so many ???? moments that I kept almost DNFing it.  Not a terrible read, but definitely not one I want to revisit!

December Minireviews – Part 1

Okay, so I honestly thought about not reviewing the books I read in December, because, if I’m honest, these reviews are going to start to sound a little same-y.  I read a LOT of Christmas fluff last month!!!  But just for the sake of having a record of what I read, I think I’m going to go ahead and plunge in and hope there were enough random ones to be interesting!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

The Christmas Escape by Sarah Morgan – 4*

//published 2021//

I started strong with a Sarah Morgan book – I’ve really enjoyed all of her books that I’ve read so far, mainly because her married couples stay married and actually work through their problems like adults instead of storming off and having an affair with the attitude of a petulant child.  This book, like her others that I have read, also has a strong focus on the importance of friendship, family, and forgiveness – basically, even though these are kind of romance, they really just are about relationships in general and how we need to work to keep them strong.  With a journey to Lapland and an actual reindeer-sleigh ride, this one also checked off a lot of prompts for my million Christmas bingo cards!!

Midwinter Murder by Agatha Christie – 4*

This was a perfectly pleasant collection of Christie shorts, although the “midwinter” aspect was definitely a stretch for some of them.  And even though I absolutely love these special editions, I really do wish they would just focus on reprinting her full-length novels instead of randomly cobbling together shorts.  Still, reading these was like eating potato chips – they were so quick and fun that I just kept reading one more.

The Little Christmas Shop on Nutcracker Lane by Jaimie Admans – 4*

//published 2020//

If you enjoy absolutely saccharine Christmas stories with extremely long titles, you should definitely check out Admans.  I read Snowflakes at the Little Christmas Tree Farm last year and actually really enjoyed it, so I tried Nutcracker Lane this time around.  If you’re looking for in-depth character development, surprising plot twists, or a new take on the holiday season, this is NOT the book for you. But if you’re looking for some relaxing fluff and complete predictability, you’ll love this one.  My only real complaint was that it was so incredibly, painfully obvious who James actually was that it felt ridiculous that the MC couldn’t realize it.  Still, a perfectly enjoyable read with likable characters.

Christmas Angels by Nancy Naigle – 3.5*

//published 2019//

This one was excellent for the first 2/3 of the story, but then it went a bit off the rails.  The MC purchases a run-down inn that used to belong to her grandparents up in the mountains of North Carolina.  She moves there and begins renovations with the help of a hunky contractor who happens to be in town.  She has nothing but happy memories of spending time there as a child and is so excited about the entire project even though it’s going to be a lot of time and money.  All of this was great, but then she falls and injures her ankle and all of a sudden decides this is a “sign” that she’s supposed to give up on the entire project???  It felt completely out of left field that Liz would suddenly do a complete 180 and literally be ready to just sell the inn and move back to the coast.  This would have been a super fun story if it had just focused on the inn renovations and rediscovering all her grandparents’ Christmas traditions and decorations + romance with the hunky contractor, but the extra drama felt really shoehorned in, like the author was just trying to fill some pages.  I did enjoy it, but could have done without the weird section of Liz suddenly being a completely different character.

Forest of Souls by Lori Lee – 4*

//published 2020//

This was a completely not-Christmas book, as it was my December book for the traveling book club.  It really reminded me a lot of Poison Study when I was reading it, except a bit more violent and 100% devoid of any romance.  There was some great world-building, but seriously who includes an EIGHT-PAGE glossary but NO MAP?!?!?!  I REALLY needed a map!  The characters and plot were interesting, though, and I was really engaged in this one.  It’s the first of a trilogy that is set to wrap up this summer, so I may read all three of them later this year.

A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday – 3.5*

//published 2020//

I had a hard time rating this one.  The story itself was perfectly fine with likable characters, but when I pick up a book that looks like a cherry little Christmas tale, I’m not mentally prepared to be bombarded with f-bombs on every page.  It felt like Holiday was trying wayyyyy to hard to make Leo the tough guy from the Bronx.  I get it, he’s tough.  So tough that he swears every-other word.  My gosh.  I do enjoy a good royalty read, so this one was fun that way, but the overall crudity meant I didn’t bother reading the sequel.

Rearview Mirror // November 2021

Hmmm, a November wrap up, and it’s only halfway through January!  Amazing!  Only the sheer stubbornness and determination to actually someday be caught up on reviews is carrying me through at this point, but hey! Whatever works!

Favorite November Read

Honestly, it’s Wodehouse here – Sam in the Suburbs was such a delight, and I don’t remember reading it before.  I laughed on almost every page.

Most Disappointing November Read

Although I ranked a couple of other books lower than this one, I think I was most disappointed with The Singles Table, mostly because I had enjoyed the first two books so much, and found this one rather lacking.

Other November Reads

• 3*
  • Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix
  • The Shallow Waters of Romance by Charlotte Darcy
  • You Lucky Dog by Julia London
• 3.5*
  • Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
  • Doctor’s Boy by Karin Anckarsvard
  • Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
  • The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo
  • Holding the Dream by Nora Roberts
  • Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie
  • Not Like the Movies by Kerry Winfrey
• 4*
  • Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
  • Chasing the Shadows by Maria Snyder
  • Daring to Dream by Nora Roberts
  • Defending the Galaxy by Maria Snyder
  • Finding the Dream by Nora Roberts
  • Homeport by Nora Roberts
  • Navigating the Stars by Maria Snyder
  • The Prepper’s Pantry Handbook by Kate Rowinski
  • Sleigh Bells Ring by RaeAnne Thayne
  • Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey

November Stats

• Total Number of Books Read:  23 (one on Kindle)
• Total Pages Read:  6529
• Average Star Rating for November:  3.72
• Longest Book: Aurora’s End (493 pages)
• Shortest Book:  The Shallow Waters of Romance (65 pages)
• Oldest Book:  Chronicles of Avonlea (published 1912)
• Newest Book: Aurora’s End, Sleigh Bells Ring, and The Singles Table were all published this year.
• Number of New-to-Me Authors:  5

November DNFs

Oh man, Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall!  I had almost forgotten about this one!  I hated to bail on it because it was actually for the traveling book club, but wow, it was maybe the worst book I’ve tried to read all year.  I absolutely hated it and wasn’t willing to put myself through an entire story with this whiny, self-entitled, obnoxious, snotty, judgy, touchy main character, even for the sake of the traveling book club.  She literally just sat around in every single freaking conversation adding up all the perceived slights from the other people there.  Rosaline is bisexual and spends all of her time looking for ways to condescendingly correct literally even complete strangers who make incorrect presumptions about her, all while explaining how long-suffering she is for having to put up with everyone else not magically knowing her precise sexual preferences.  Her daughter was an absolute horror, despite being extremely young, I can’t remember, younger than ten anyway, she talks like she’s 22 and is turning into someone just as judgy as her mother, constantly finding ways to shame everyone around her for not knowing obvious things, like the fact that her mother’s best (female) friend used to be her mother’s girlfriend but they decided they were better as just friends but still do everything together even though the best friend is now married to another woman.  Like, duh, why wouldn’t you just know that right off the bat?  Ugh.  People.  I’ve noticed this trend in modern romcoms to still write the main romance as being M/F but to make the female character be bisexual so the author can still get lots of props for being so modern and inclusive, but it really just turns into an opportunity for the author to preach at everyone and also to make the female MC be even more pervy than ever, because now she can spend all of her time talking/thinking about sleeping with literally EVERY PERSON SHE MEETS no matter their age, gender, or marital status (because in fiction, bisexual = horny for everyone, apparently).  I’m way over it.  I also just… I’m okay with reading a book that has some sex scenes, because they are easily skimmed/skipped.  But what I actually hate is when a book is just plain vulgar.  And that’s what this one is – it’s full of swearing (I counted 10 “fucks” on one page) and the characters are constantly thinking and talking about sex – having it, getting ready for it, who they wish they could have it with, whether or not someone would be good at it, how ridiculous it is that someone doesn’t realize that they enjoy having sex with all kinds of people, on and on and on and on.  It’s just gross and so unnecessary, and also – not a story??  If your main character trait is “talks about sex a lot,” I’m not sure you’ve really gone out of your way to actually create a real character.  After almost 100 pages of self-righteous Rosaline going around feeling soooo exhausted because she has to spend allll her time setting everyone straight on what bisexuality is really all about, I decided this book was not worth my time.

TBR Update

This I keep updated as I go, so it’s current as of today, rather than as of the end of November.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m weirdly obsessive with organizing the TBR, and have it on a spreadsheet divided into six different tabs:

• Standalones:  497 (up three)
• Nonfiction:  129 (up one)
• Personal (which includes all books I own (fiction and nonfiction), but lists any series I own as only one entry…):  640 (up three)
• Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series):  250 (down one!)
• Mystery Series (each series counted separately, not each book within a series): 110 (holding steady)
• New Arrivals – (I have a lot of books that I have been gifted or that I pick up somewhere and they get put on my “oh I’m so excited about this shiny new book” shelf… and then of course don’t actually get read.): 151 (down one)

Current Reads

Quite a few because January always means I jump into a bunch of buddy reads, many of which fizzle out by the middle of the year haha

• The Year-Round Gardener by Nikki Jabour – As always, one of my 2022 goals is to read more nonfiction. I’m really trying to constantly have a nonfiction book in the rotation, one chapter a day. This one is about extending the gardening season by using things like cold frames and row covers.  Super interesting, but not 100% sure it’s going to be for me haha
• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens – Another goal for the new year is to check off some “difficult” books from my list, mostly older classics.  David Copperfield was my random draw for January, and I’m actually really enjoying it.  Dickens has such a wry sense of humor and does amazing character studies.  David himself is so likable as well.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte – The only Bronte book I’ve ever read was this one, back in high school, and I hated every page.  The Litsy group that read through all of Jane Austen’s books last year has decided to branch out into some other classic female writings, so I decided to join them for another tour of Wuthering Heights to see if it has improved as I’ve gotten older.  Short answer – no, everyone is still incredibly stupid.  But now I’m finding it rather hilarious.  The small chunks of just a chapter a day are definitely helping as well.
• Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi – I’ve never read this children’s classic, so when a Litsy group picked it for January, I thought I would read along.  Believe it or not, it’s even more bizarre than the Disney version.
• The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery – The Kindred Spirit Buddy Readers are continuing their way through Montgomery’s books, with The Story Girl and its sequel, The Golden Road, next in line.  I’ve read these, but it’s been a really long time, so I’m enjoying the revisit.
• Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie – This is the actual book I’m “really” reading haha  I just started it after spending almost an entire week working my way through The Eight by Katherine Neville.  I really enjoyed The Eight and am looking forward to the sequel, but my brain needed a break, so I turned to some classic Christie instead!

Last Time on “Up Next…”

Did I actually read my probably next five reads from last time?

• The Waterfire Saga – Yes!  I finished and really enjoyed this four-book series about mermaids!  Who would have thought??
• All the buddy reads I just talked about up above – yes-ish!  They are all in progress!
• From Blood & Ash – No, not yet!  It’s still on January’s hopeful list.
• Dumb Witness – So random that this is the one I decided to start next!

Up Next

The probable next five(ish) reads…

• The Fire by Katherine Neville – even though it took me forever to get through The Eight, I really did enjoy it and definitely am planning to pick up the sequel.
• Sarah’s Ground by Ann Rinaldi – this is one of those books I picked up at a booksale in like, the 90s, and still haven’t read. With a major 2022 goal being to read from my own shelves, this one is next on the list, especially since it’s one of those books that I think will be fine to read once but isn’t going to be my new favorite that I need to keep around for another 20 years.
• The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway – you would think that since this classic is so short, I would have gotten around to reading it already, but no!
• For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten – this is my traveling book club book for this month. So far, it’s gotten mixed reviews from our group, so we’ll see if it’s any good.
• The Girl Who Could Breathe Under Water by Erin Bartels – this is a copy from the publisher for review, so it needs to be read before the end the month!!

Well, that’s the November update – I’ll be back soon with loads of fluffy romance reviews from December!!!

November Minireviews // Part 3

Final set of reviews for November!!  Woohoo!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

The Shallow Waters of Romance by Charlotte Darcy – 3*

This was a free Kindle book I finally got around to reading.  Not sure why I didn’t read it was soon as I got it, considering it’s only 65 pages long.  That was also the main problem with this one – 65 pages just wasn’t enough to actually tell a story.  The bones were there and they were good, but overall it felt pointless because there is zero real character development or opportunity for anyone to do anything.

Doctor’s Boy by Karin Anckarsvard – 3.5*

This is another one that has been on my shelves for absolutely ever.  A children’s chapter book, I was utterly charmed by it at first – a delightful story about a young boy learning about poverty and the importance of helping those around us.  However, this book literally just stopped – to the point that I wondered if my book had been published with a missing final chapter??  I’m still confused by the way this book ended without any real conclusion, and still am wondering if something was lost in the translation from its original Swedish!

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie – 3.5*

This was November’s Christie book for the Litsy group that is reading through her entire bibliography, and while perfectly enjoyable, it’s not one of my favorites.  It’s all a little melodramatic, and I always prefer Poirot to be there the entire time instead of showing up in the middle.  Still, even though I had read it before I couldn’t remember the conclusion, and quite enjoyed watching the story unravel.

The Singles Table by Sara Desai – 3.5*

After really enjoying the first two books in this series, The Marriage Game and The Dating Plan, I was a little let down by this one.  First off, there was virtually no crossover from the earlier characters, so I’m not even sure why this is considered to be a part of the series.  Secondly, it felt like there were way more sexy times in this one than the other two books.  Thirdly, I didn’t really like Zara and found her character development to be quite uneven – as was Jay’s.  It felt like both of them were going back and forth a lot about everything, and I wasn’t sure if I should really be rooting for them as a couple or not.  A fine little romance, but it lacked the charisma of the two earlier books.

Dream Trilogy // by Nora Roberts

• Daring to Dream
• Holding the Dream
• Finding the Dream

One of the things I love about Nora Roberts is her tendency to write series that focus on a group of friends or siblings.  I love watching the relationships grow over time, and seeing the already-happy couples from earlier stories in the background.  This mid-90s series was a solid read in that respect, but not my favorite.

The series begins with Daring to Dream, and a prologue sets the stage for the entire series.  Like most of Roberts’s stories, at least one character has to be obscenely rich, and Laura Templeton is that character for this series.  Her parents own a hotel dynasty.  Laura’s cousin, Kate, was orphaned as a child and has lived with the Templetons ever since.  The final member of the trio is the heroine of the first book, Margo, whose mother was the housekeeper at Templeton House, where the girls grew up.

The first book is almost as much about Margo growing as a person and developing/healing her relationship with her mother as it is about the romance between her and Laura’s brother, Josh.  She runs away as soon as she can and becomes a world-famous model.  When the main story starts, though, the man she was dating was embroiled in a huge scandal, which as spilled over into Margo’s career.  She returns home, completely broke, and not sure what she wants to do.  I honestly loved Margo and Josh together.  Josh pushed Margo in just the right ways, and their relationship felt like it was going to be good for the long haul.  During the course of the book, Margo ends up opening a store with the help of, of course, Kate and Laura.  The rest of the series somewhat centers around this new business that the women have founded together.

In Holding the Dream, Kate is on the fast track to becoming a partner at the prestigious accounting firm where she works.  She has always loved numbers and is passionate about accounting (I know, right?), and is devastated when its discovered that someone has been embezzling client money – and the signs point to Kate.  Put on a leave of absence, Kate has time to think about her life and where she’s headed, and, of course, find some romance.  My main frustration with this one was that it was obvious in pretty much the first chapter who the actual “bad guy” was, to the point that it seemed absurd that Kate didn’t realize it, too.  I also didn’t like the love interest as well in this one – he was borderline manipulative with his ways of getting to know Kate and getting her to be interested in a relationship with him.  Still, a perfectly decent story, even if it was my least-favorite of the three.

The final book, and my favorite, was about Laura.  In the first book, Laura is getting a divorce from her husband.  Married just after her 18th birthday, a decade of misery and infidelity on his part has passed.  The mother of two daughters, Laura is determined to make it on her own, despite the fact that her ex-husband absconded with all of their joint money.  Refusing to touch the family vault, Laura is working at her family’s hotel as well as in the store the women have opened, all while trying to balance being a mother and keeping her household together.  Laura was a very likable and relatable character, despite her background of wealth and privilege, and I really liked her.  I also loved her love interest – Roberts really writes “rough around the edges but actually really good guys” super well haha  My biggest issue with this one was that everyone – literally everyone – acted like it was soooooo ridiculous that Laura had only ever had sex with her husband, like that made her kind of broken and repressed.  It got old after a while.  Not everyone goes around having sex with all kinds of people, and I’m tired of being told that that means I have a problem.

On the whole though this was a fun and relaxing series.  Definitely not my favorite of Roberts writing, but perfectly enjoyable as one-off reads.

November Minireviews – Part 2

Orchard life is wrapping up fast.  I always think that that means I’m going to have more spare time… but we’ll see if that’s actually true!!!

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey – 4*

//published 2019//

This one has been on my TBR for so long that the sequel has already been published as well haha  I really enjoyed this one overall, although I have to admit that a large part of that was because it is set so close to home and Winfrey hit so many fantastic Columbus/German Village/Ohio references.  The Columbus skyline is even on the cover!!  Our own amazing bookstore, The Book Loft, is featured, which was super fun.  The story itself was fine.  I really liked the male MC, Drew, but the female protagonist, Annie, did get on my nerves just because she kept purposefully misunderstanding/taking offense at literally everything Drew said.  Basically he says one teasing thing to her when they first meet, she immediately decides to take it offensively, and then does nothing but complain about him and assume the worst about him (while complaining that HE assumes the worst about everyone else!) despite the fact that he’s actually being perfectly lovely to her and everyone else around him??  It got old fast.  But overall, the humor, the fun side characters, the PG13 rating, and (of course) the fun setting meant that I really enjoyed this one.

Not Like the Movies by Kerry Winfrey – 3.5*

//published 2020//

I didn’t like the sequel quite as well, mainly because while I really enjoyed Chloe as the side character, she got on my nerves when she moved to the MC position.  She spends about 50% of her time talking about how marriage is not for her and it’s a terrible idea and ew gross why would anyone do that and marriage is for losers and she would rather DIE than get married on and on and on and ON to the point that it started to feel offensive.  Another huge chunk of internal dialogue is devoted to the fact that she’s bisexual which apparently means you spend all of your time sexually evaluating literally every person you see; she was constantly thinking things like “I couldn’t decide if I would rather hang out with her or kiss her” or “he’s okay as a friend but I didn’t find him as attractive as his sister”, like she was always objectifying pretty much everyone she met and it really got on my nerves.  It got to the point where it felt like Winfrey wanted to write a romance that would appeal to her straight readers, but still score points for being “diverse” but that meant she had to constantly remind everyone that even though Chloe’s main crush is a dude, she would still be into that guy even if he was a girl!  She likes girls!  Like sexually likes girls!  Enough that she’s always looking at them and thinking about whether or not she would like to sleep with them!  As long as she doesn’t have to marry them, because getting married is for losers!!  So parts of this were still fun and engaging, and the actual plot line was good, but Chloe herself was SO annoying that it really brought down my overall enjoyment of the book.

Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff – 4*

//published 2021//

So it’s funny because I’ve had the first book in this series, Aurora Rising, on my TBR for so long that it wasn’t even part of a series when I added it, yet I managed to actually read it only two months before the final book appeared!  Quite fortuitous.  I really enjoyed this grand finale, and there was a fabulous little summary that was just enough to get me back in the groove at the beginning of the book, but easy to skip/skim if you already remembered what was going on.  This one definitely flirted with the overly-complicated line, but I think it managed to not quite cross, despite the time loops making some of the story feel repetitive.  I definitely plan to reread this series in the future, and I’m interested to see if I like this one better when I read it closer to its predecessors.

You Lucky Dog by Julia London – 3*

//published 2020//

I was attracted to this one because of its cute cover and fun premise – Carly and Max both own basset hounds, but come home to find that their dog walker has mixed up the dogs!!  Returning accidentally-swapped dogs seemed like a fun meet-cute, and it was… kind of.  The problem with this book was that it was just Too Much.  Literally every person in Carly’s life is a Drama Queen set at 11, full of bizarre quirks and weird backstories.  Her parents were having all this just over-the-top drama and the entire love story basically got drowned out by the honestly somewhat-depressing complications and people in Carly’s life.  I never really shipped her and Max that much, mostly because they both got on my nerves in their own way, and because they never seemed to have an actual conversation that made sense or wasn’t interrupted by Carly just running off to solve some other crisis.  They were horrible communicators, and once again the whole thing where the woman has a great job opportunity and doesn’t even discuss it with the guy she likes because obviously he will demand that she relinquish the job and stay with him because OBVIOUSLY NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THE CONCEPT OF COMMUNICATION AND COMPROMISE.  Nothing makes me mad about a story faster than someone “already knowing” what the other person is going to say and so they DON’T EVEN TALK ABOUT IT.  UGH.  So anyway, this story was okay and some of the plot had some promise, but overall it was a little flat because of all the extra drama and a complete inability for the main characters to have a normal conversation.

Sleigh Bells Ring by RaeAnne Thayne – 4*

//published 2021//

Thayne has become one of my go-to authors for relaxing, low-angst, clean romance.  I really enjoyed her newest book, which happened to be Christmasy and just right for a little seasonal preview, as I read it right before Thanksgiving, mostly because it was due back at the library haha  Nothing crazy here, 100% predictable story with likable characters, realistic drama, and a fun family.  My only complaint was that I would have liked this to have turned into a series, as some of the secondary romances could easily have been their own books.

Sentinels of the Galaxy Trilogy // by Maria V. Snyder

• Navigating the Stars
• Chasing the Shadows
• Defending the Galaxy

I’ve read Snyder’s Chronicles of Ixia twice now and absolutely loved them, so I’ve been meaning to pick up this trilogy for quite a while.  I didn’t love this series as much as the Ixia books, but they were still really well done.

Lyra is the daughter of two renowned archeologists, living on a planet whose entire human population is based around the archeological dig there.  The dig focuses on a set of strange artifacts that have been found on multiple planets (including Earth) around the galaxy – terracotta warrior statues.  Content with her life and friends, Lyra is devastated when she finds out that she will be moving with her parents to a new planet, one that just discovered another set of warriors.

Snyder sets the stage for her space travel by explaining that everyone uses “time dilation,” similar to basically every other space book I seem to read, starting with A Wrinkle in Time, wherein travelers pass through folds/wrinkles/etc. of space.  However, while it only takes a few hours for the travelers to pass through a time dilation, it can take decades of real time.  Thus, say you were born (I’m going to use just random numbers here because I don’t have the book in front of me) in 2000, then at the age of 10 travel to a far-flung planet.  When you arrive, you are still 10 Actual years old, but it’s now year 2052, so all of your friends from the original planet are now 52, while you’re still a child.  It’s a little confusing at first, and the repeated use of Actual Years Old began to get on my nerves, but it all in all makes decent sense.

So when Lyra’s spaceship exits from time dilation, she of course receives all kinds of messages and news from the past couple of decades (even though it was only a couple of hours for her) – including some very disturbing news about the planet (and people) they left behind.

All three of these books held together really well, without that dreaded second-book dip.  I was thoroughly engaged in what was going on with Lyra and her friends.  The pacing was good and the characters mostly likable – I especially appreciated that Lyra had a great relationship with her parents, instead of them being constantly at odds.

My only real problem with these books was that I read them so close to the Aurora Cycle.  They aren’t really that similar in terms of plot, but they do both involve a lot of space travel, time jumping, and people from the past.  I didn’t get the confused at the time, but now that some time has passed from reading both of them, I find myself having to actively remember which things happened in which books haha

This wasn’t my new favorite series, but it’s one that I can see myself rereading.  Overall, Snyder has become a favorite author of mine, and I’m still working my way through the rest of her works.  If you like YA and scifi, this trilogy is definitely worth checking out.

November Minireviews – Part 1

November was kind of a weird month, which I feel like I’ve said about every month in 2021, so maybe it’s just that 2021 was a weird year.  Anyway, I’m still working on the review backlong, so here are some reads from late fall…

Sometimes I don’t feel like writing a full review for whatever reason, either because life is busy and I don’t have time, or because a book didn’t stir me enough.  Sometimes, it’s because a book was so good that I just don’t have anything to say beyond that I loved it!  Frequently, I’m just wayyy behind on reviews and am trying to catch up.  For whatever reason, these are books that only have a few paragraphs of thoughts from me.

Sam in the Suburbs by P.G. Wodehouse – 5*

//published 1925//

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – even when I think I’m not in the mood for Wodehouse, I’m in the mood for Wodehouse.  I was somewhat ambivalent about this one when I picked it up, but I loved absolutely every page.  Wodehouse is just a delight and his farcical situations had me cracking up.  I don’t know how he does it, but it’s absolutely impossible to be in a bad mood when you’re reading one of his books.

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix – 3*

This was actually the first book in a trilogy but I felt so meh about it that I sent the other two books back to the library unread.  This one is about Cinderella after the events of the traditional tale – and things aren’t going so great.  It was kind of boring and not much really happened, and Ella was literally the only female in the entire story who was likable/not stupid, which is a trope that I genuinely hate.  It wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but there was definitely nothing about it that made me think I wanted to drag myself through two more stories set in the same world.

Homeport by Nora Roberts – 4*

When I don’t really know what I want to read, I frequently just pick up a Nora Roberts book and go.  This one was sort of romantic suspense lite, and I really enjoyed watching the proper, rules-oriented Miranda be forced to work with a literal art thief.  As always, Roberts takes time to give background characters enough depth to make the story feel more real, but I felt like Miranda’s strained relationship with her mother was sometimes overplayed – it seemed hard to believe that her mother could be that much of a jerk that much of the time.  This wasn’t my favorite Roberts book ever, but I did enjoy it and can see myself rereading it at some point.

The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo – 3.5*

//published 2013//

Do you ever have a book on your TBR that feel obligated to at least try before you take it off?  Sometimes I don’t even know how books get there, and this is one of them.  It doesn’t exactly sound like “my” kind of book, so someone must have given a stellar review of it at some point along the line!! I started this one honestly expecting to give it 50-100 pages and then DNFing it, but to my surprise, I was drawn into the story.  The author does an excellent job of letting the reader understand the afterlife that correlates with the beliefs of the characters, considering I knew nothing before reading the book.  While I did want to keep reading and find out what happened, it was a book that was rather meandery – one of those books that I wanted to keep reading when I was actually reading it, but didn’t exactly feel inspired to pick back up once I set it down.  A fun one-off, but not a new favorite.

Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery – 3.5*

The same group on Litsy that had a buddy read of the Emily books is continuing to work its way through some of Montgomery’s other stories (they actually started with the Anne series, but I had already reread those super recently so I didn’t join in for that part).  We decided to read these short story collections next, but they were just a so-so read for me for the most part.  A lot of Montgomery’s short stories are her playing around with concepts she later used in her full-length novels, so these started to feel somewhat repetitive after a while, and a few inclusions of Anne felt gimmicky, especially one story told in first-person from Anne’s POV.  They weren’t bad stories, and some of them were actually quite good – and more than one of them got me all choked up – but on the whole they didn’t wow me.

The Prepper’s Pantry Handbook by Kate Rowinski – 4*

//published 2020//

Surely I am not the only one who browses the book rack at Tractor Supply and then takes pictures of the books I find interesting so I can check them out of the library later??  At only around 150pgs, this isn’t a book intended to delve into the depths of prepping, but if you find yourself wishing you had some emergency food on hand and aren’t sure where to start, Rowinski does a great job covering the basics. The word “prepper“ has frequently been associated with wild-eyed conspiracy theorists in hidden bunkers, but I think we’ve all seen over the last couple of years how fragile many of supply chains are, and how a sudden weather event can knock out the power and cause a lot of trouble. Having shelf-stable food on hand that isn’t dependent on keeping the refrigerator running, and, more importantly, knowing how to actually cook it even if power isn’t an option, are practical plans for helping keep you and your family safe during emergencies. I really liked how Rowinski suggested starting with just a three-day plan. Focusing on menus/meal planning at first helps beginners to get their heads around keeping the pantry balanced & stocked with the things that you and your family actually like to eat. There are some really convenient charts here for assessing your pantry and making sure you have balanced food groups (for instance, I definitely need more beans/protein). The recipes are pretty simple and I noted a few that I want to try. I’ve been working on slowly building my “skills pantry“ as well by learning to bake bread, can, etc. Rowinski isn’t a doomsday writer suggesting that you prep for an apocalyptic fallout.   Instead, her book focuses on simple and practical steps to help families be prepared for if the power goes out for more than a day, or something happens that prevents you from getting the supplies you need. I appreciated how she pointed out that having more food on hand also makes you more able to help neighbors and others during those emergency times as well. All in all, not a book I need to own, but a great starter for those who aren’t sure where to start.  I actually still have this one checked out from the library (auto-renewal is magical haha) because I do want to try to implement a few of her plans and recipes, but just haven’t had the time!!  Work is finally starting to slow down, though, so maybe February will be my month to get my pantry a little more organized.