The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan: Book Review
3 Stars. I adored Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, the first book in this series. Dash was just enough of a curmudgeon and Lily was a delight. They were quirky together, they had funny friends, and seeing their relationship develop against the backdrop of Christmas in New York was the stuff that holiday rom-coms […]
Christmas Bliss by Mary Kay Andrews: Book Review
4 Stars. It’s been quite a while since I read any books in this series because I somehow missed that a fourth one existed! I can’t say that there was a whole lot going on here, plot-wise. There were a few things but they felt and largely turned out to be low-stakes. Mostly I just enjoyed re-visiting Weezie […]
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan: Book Review
4 Stars. I’m not a huge romance reader and even less of a young adult romance reader but I’ve watched my share of rom-coms and this is a rom-com with the cutest of meet cutes. I adored it. And what reader could resist its charms? Dash and Lily’s paths cross when Lily leaves a red notebook with a dare hidden […]
American Christmas Stories, edited by Connie Willis: Book Review
4 Stars. I listened to Connie Willis’s collection of her own Christmas stories (A Lot Like Christmas) last year and went searching for more of her work. I stumbled on this anthology that she edited and decided to give it a try. The quality of the stories was remarkably consistent! The stories are arranged […]
A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis: Book Review
4 Stars. This is a great collection of non-traditional Christmas stories in the fantasy and science fiction vein with bits and pieces of other genres thrown in here and there. It sounds quirky and it is but it really worked for me. It was a nice change of pace during the holiday season. The quality is […]
Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher: Book Review
4 Stars. I read quite a few books by Rosamunde Pilcher when I was in my late teens and twenties but I haven’t read much of her work since then. But somehow I stumbled on this title when I was looking for Christmas-y books that weren’t too sentimental. That’s just not my taste. But Rosamunde Pilcher seemed like a safe bet. And […]
Alaskan Holiday by Debbie Macomber: Book Review
2.5 Stars. I’m not really the audience for this book but I wanted a Christmas-y audiobook and it was either this standalone romance or other romances or cozy mysteries that were roughly number 52 in a series. (Yes, that’s an exaggeration but not as much as it should be.) Standalone romance it was, even though I’m not really a […]
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris: Book Review
I tried, but I give up. The first story, “Santa Land Diaries,” was great. Sedaris’s tale of working as a Macy’s department store elf is hilarious! Those people who inevitably make the news every Black Friday by pepper spraying and punching their fellow shoppers? I think they all go to Macy’s at Christmas. Sedaris writes […]
When Santa Fell to Earth by Cornelia Funke: Book Review
Twinklestar, the last reindeer, panics in a thunderstorm and sends Santa’s caravan plunging toward the ground. After making sure everyone is okay, Niklas Goodfellow, the last real Santa, realizes that he has come to earth in a territory controlled by the evil new head Santa, Gerold Goblynch. Niklas is on the run from Goblynch and […]
The Fat Man by Ken Harmon: Book Review
Gumdrop Coal has gotten the axe. Founder of the Coal Patrol, those elves who deliver coal into bad little kids’ stockings, Gumdrop is out on his ear when Santa decides that every child deserves a real gift on Christmas. Gumdrop takes it hard. His methods might be harsh, but he believes they’re fair and they […]
The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig: Book Review
Arabella Dempsey has just seen all her hopes dashed. She’s been a companion to her aunt since she was a child and fully expected to inherit from her. She realizes that isn’t going to happen when her aunt marries a much younger man–the very man that Arabella has been fantasizing about. Does it get any […]