Tag: holiday

Holiday ARC Review: All I Want for Christmas

Posted December 22, 2016 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

Basics and Initial Excitement Every year I’ve come to look forward to Jenny Hale’s newest Christmas story. I’ll be the first to tell you that they’re formulaic (especially when you’ve read all of her Christmas stories), often predictable, and cheesy in some parts. But honestly, what good Hallmark or Lifetime Christmas movie isn’t all of those things?! These books put me in the Christmas mood like no others and I am so happy to read them each year. I read this one in two settings within the course of 12 hours and I have no regrets. Characters and Story The setup for this one is somewhat similar to her others, but had some welcome twists to the norm. Leah and her daughter Sadie grew up with and loved Leah’s Nan. She owned a huge plantation where she would host events and the girls would spend time together. When Nan dies unexpectedly, Leah is not surprised to see that she was willed the plantation. However, she IS surprised to see a twist – a man from her childhood, David, is living there and was ALSO willed the mansion. When Leah, Sadie, and Leah’s family and friends trickle in for one last Christmas, sparks fly and the two have to figure out how to move forward with the mansion. I really loved getting to know Leah, Sadie, David, and Leah’s friends (Roz and Louise). They had great bonds with each other. David was incredibly kind and at times, a little too perfect. I […]

Favorite Holiday Books and Tropes

Posted December 5, 2016 / Book Lists, Features / 11 Comments

I’ve done holiday things on the blog basically since it first started. I only read 14 holiday books before this 2016 season, but I think it’d be worth recapping all of those here! I’m going to rank them from favorite to least favorite, plus include a mini review or summary about the book so you can decide if maybe you’d like it more than I did! But first, let’s look at some of the elements of holiday books that make me love them. ? ? ☃ ❄️ What makes me love a holiday book? | Favorite Tropes Perfect snowy, cozy setting | This is the biggest thing I look for. I need to FEEL like its Christmas and let there be snow all over the place. Some of the books below have really fun settings like a B&B in a cold place, or a big mansion full of Christmas decorations and cozy rooms with fireplaces. Lots of holiday feels | I need there to be days leading up to the holidays and then a full exploration of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I love the anticipation of the day coming and then getting to celebrate with the family. Snowed in | There are a couple books on here where a couple gets snowed in together and ends up falling for each other. This “stuck together” trope is one of my favorites (and will hopefully be a read-bait topic sometime soon!). I love the cozy feeling of being snowed in and trying to keep warm. Short stories | I […]

Holiday Review: Winter Street

Posted December 2, 2016 / Book Reviews / 10 Comments

Basics and Initial Excitement I decided to make this my first Elin Hilderbrand novel, as well as my first holiday book of this season. The synopsis grabbed me right from the beginning… and it helps that it takes place on Nantucket, one of my favorite places to read about. (It’s a couple of hours from me and I’ve never been there, but it’s similar to Cape Cod – one of my actual favorite places.) The book came in quickly at the library and I set off on my first seasonal read. Characters and Story The story is set over the Christmas holiday and begins on December 23rd. The Quinn family is used to gathering for the holidays at the Winter Street Inn that their father owns (and some of them still live at). This year, a wrench is thrown into the works when their stepmom is found kissing Santa Claus and leaves their father. The family has to move through the holiday parties and Christmas morning without one of the main caretakers of the inn. I liked that the story alternated between all of the main characters so you could get into their heads a little bit. Some of them were harder to connect to or get a read on (because of all the POV switching) but I’m glad that format was chosen for this book regardless. The children include Patrick, who is having a breakdown over some things happening at work; Ava, a schoolteacher that lives at the inn and can’t get […]

2016 Holiday Books & Celebration

Posted November 25, 2016 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 14 Comments

In previous years, I have really cozied up in the holiday season and done a lot of Christmassy reading. I absolutely love letting the snow fall outside and reading holiday books with a nice cup of hot chocolate. I am a very indoorsy person during the winter months, let me tell you. As always, I have to include a TBR post for this holiday season and share what I plan on doing on the blog. I like to read and review the books quickly so you may have some recommendations before it’s too late. (Most of my reviews are scheduled weeks or months out, which wouldn’t help you read holiday books during the actual holidays.) You can see past TBRs, readathons, and wintery graphics from 2014 and 2015 if you’re curious. I love featuring holiday-themed reviews that start at the end of November and end before New Year’s. I hope it gives people enough of a shot to get some last-minute holiday recommendations while they’re in the mood! I started a new holiday cheer-o-meter feature last year, where I rate the book on how much holiday-related cheer and feels it brings to the table. Some books I read are more winter-focused while others are full-on Christmas stories. I also include a little graphic to tell you quickly the holidays that are involved in the story. If you’re looking for something more specific, I’ve got you covered. In each review, I want to let you know just how holiday-oriented the story is, as well as […]

Valentine’s Day

Posted February 14, 2016 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 8 Comments

I knew I wanted to share something lovey for Valentine’s Day this year. I haven’t in the past for whatever reason, but better late than never! I’ve put together some lists of my favorite romantic books, moments, songs, movies, etc. to celebrate the holiday! I used to watch a lot of romantic comedies but I haven’t in quite some time! Netflix is better for binging TV shows, plus Chris doesn’t like them too much. We’ve been so Marvel-addicted lately. But, for the sake of reminding me what movies I’ve loved in the past (and to watch them again!) here are some of my favorite rom-coms or romantic movies. I don’t even care if some of them are flawed or cliche. They make me laugh, cry, and feel all the things. Stacy: So every day you help her to realize what happened and you wait patiently for her to be okay with it… then you get her to fall in love with you again? Henry: Yes, ma’am. Kat: I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair. I hate the way you drive my car. I hate it when you stare. I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. I hate you so much it makes me sick; it even makes me rhyme. I hate it, I hate the way you’re always right. I hate it when you lie. I hate it when you make me laugh, even worse […]

Book Buddies Review: Snowed Over

Posted December 30, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Cristina’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Cristina’s part of the discussion here. Going off of your question about holiday books and novellas, how does this one compare to other holiday-themed stories? Have you read a lot of them? Lauren: I generally read a handful of holiday books each December! I’ve noticed that most of them are more adult stories instead of YA. As you mentioned in your post, My True Love Gave to Me featured a great bunch of stories, but there wasn’t enough time to really get to know the characters. I read quite a few holiday books this year that didn’t really hit the mark for me, and this one falls into the “generally positive” category; I’d probably recommend this one because of how quick it was! Cristina: Prior to this story I had only read two “holiday” themed books, and they were both YA anthologies: My True Love Gave to Me and Let it Snow. It was definitely a nice change of pace to have a cohesive holiday […]

Merry Christmas! (including Christmas Song Book Tag)

Posted December 25, 2015 / Personal / Information / Etc. / 10 Comments

My favorite day of the year is here! I love Christmas so much. Realistically, I love the few days before Christmas more than the actual day itself… because once today is here, it’s over. I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the holiday reviews I’ve been sharing over the past month and added a few to your TBR. I wanted to say Merry Christmas if you celebrate, share THE ONLY holiday song you need, and also partake in the Christmas Song Book Tag (below the video)! And there are some pics of my Christmas decorations, if you care about that kind of thing. Holiday Pots on Bookmark Lit Introduction: 2015 Holiday Fun Review: Icing on the Lake Review: Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses Review: Christmas at Lilac Cottage Review: Decked With Holly Book Buddies Review: Snowed Over [link goes live on December 30th] Jana at The Artsy Reader Girl created the Christmas Song Book Tag earlier this month, and I knew it would be the perfect post to share on Christmas! You just match up the popular Christmas song with a book, based on the prompt. This was so fun. See her original post here! {Graphics by me} Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins This book is, first of all, one of my all-time favorites. Secondly, Anna is away from home studying in Paris. I loved the setting because I’ve never been there! It made me want to book a flight right away. Xander+Caymen from The Distance Between Us by Kasie West Another […]

Holiday Review: Decked with Holly

Posted December 23, 2015 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

This month I’ll be highlighting different holiday or Christmas-oriented books on the blog. I love reading based on the season, so stay tuned for more wintery reviews. To learn more about what’s coming and my holiday book rating system, check here! Buddy Read with Rachel from Go Read A Book When Rachel reached out asking if I wanted to Buddy Read, I happily agreed! Then, of course, I messed up the date we were supposed to post and we ended up just having a casual Google Hangouts chat! She’s posting her review today as well, and we wanted to keep it informal. We both agreed that this book wasn’t the best, but was cute enough to read. Rachel gave it 3 stars and I was a little more generous with 3.5 stars 😉 We started out with how we both generally liked Dominic, but I had some reservations. In hate-to-love romances, there’s always some tension and dislike towards the beginning. He took it a little too far, with commenting nonstop about her appearance. She looked bad when they first met because she was seasick. He also jumped to a lot of conclusions about her right away and didn’t strike me as the sharpest tool in the shed. Lauren: It kind of bothered me how he didn’t seem to like Holly and judged her appearance for a long time. I’m a fan of the hate-to-love romance trope, but I don’t like that he was kind of mean about her. It took adding […]

Holiday Review: Christmas at Lilac Cottage

Posted December 16, 2015 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

This month I’ll be highlighting different holiday or Christmas-oriented books on the blog. I love reading based on the season, so stay tuned for more wintery reviews. To learn more about what’s coming and my holiday book rating system, check here! This book started out really strong for me and then my feelings kind of dwindled towards the end. I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel like I’ve been reading a lot of instalove-like romances and I’m getting tired of it. I need a good hate-to-love romance to get back in the swing of things. I didn’t realize throughout most of my reading that this book basically only happens over the course of a week… meaning there was some EXTREME instalove. This bugs me more than love triangles do. I did feel some chemistry but the whole use of the L-word right away is a major deterrent. Here’s a breakdown of some good/bad things. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book if you don’t mind the instalove factor. I enjoyed it a lot aside from that. If the plot was just stretched out over a longer period of time, it would probably work okay for me. The story was cute in general and very atmospheric. I love the town of White Cliff Bay so I will definitely be reading the next story at some point!I definitely expected the book to be more Christmassy, especially because of the title. It took place in the week leading up to Christmas […]

Holiday Review: Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses

Posted December 11, 2015 / Book Reviews / 4 Comments

This month I’ll be highlighting different holiday or Christmas-oriented books on the blog. I love reading based on the season, so stay tuned for more wintery reviews. To learn more about what’s coming and my holiday book rating system, check here! My holidays would not be complete without a Jenny Hale Christmas story. I’ve read her two other Christmas books and loved them so much. This year I was provided an ARC from the publisher and had to resist digging in right away. These books are SO EFFING CHRISTMASSY that it would be best suited for the beginning of December, when I want to jolt my Christmas spirit for the month. Of course, it delivered in every way I hoped. I’ll be completely honest when I say that Hale’s holiday stories are formulaic. There’s a girl who starts to work for or help out a workaholic millionaire around the holidays – maybe she moves into his house for a ~reason~ – and they start to fall in love. So far, all three books have followed this general formula. However, in the same way that all AC/DC songs sound the same, I love them all equally and don’t even care if they’re a bit too similar. They’re all perfect. Plus, if you read one once a year, you’re not likely to get sick of a similar story. So, as usual, I loved this one. Abbey was a great protagonist, and her son Max was even better. I loved the family feels […]