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Showing posts from December, 2022

Merrily Ever After by Cathy Bramley

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🎄🎄🎄🎄 Print Length: 414 pages Publication Date: October 13, 2022 By: Orion Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Merry has always wanted a family to spend Christmas with, and this year her dream comes true as she says 'I do' to father-of-two Cole. But as she juggles her rapidly-growing business, wedding planning and the two new children in her life, her dream begins to unravel. Emily is desperately waiting for the New Year to begin, so she can finally have a fresh start. She has always put her family first, leaving little time for happiness and love. When her beloved father Ray moves into a residential home, she discovers a photograph in his belongings that has the potential to change everything. As past secrets come to light, will this be a magical Christmas for Emily and Merry to remember? My Review: A Wedding and Christmas all in one book? Count me in! I had no idea that this was book one in a series, the first one being The Merry Christmas Project . This one can certainly

Gifts by Laura Barnett

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🎁🎁🎁🎁 Print Length 224 pages Publication Date: November 11, 2021 By: W&N Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: TWELVE PEOPLE...TWELVE GIFTS...ONE CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER ...Maddy runs the bookshop on Market Square. She's struggling to choose a gift (a watch? a wine subscription? a weekend bag? all too much?) for her old school friend Peter, who's just moved back from London following a messy divorce. Peter doesn't have a clue what to get for his teenage daughter Chloe - furious with her mother, she's decided to up sticks and move to Kent with him, but he worries that he really doesn't know her at all. Chloe wants to buy something special for her grandmother Irene, who lives alone on the other side of town. Irene doesn't get out much these days, but she'd really like to find the right gift for Alina, who's so much more than a carer, really - always stops to chat for a bit, have a cup of tea, even if it makes her late. And Alina, meanwhile, has her eye

Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh

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☃️☃️☃️☃️ .ePUB, 350 pages Publication Date: September 29, 2022 By: Bookouture Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight. Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up. Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing.

Just Like Magic by Sarah Hogle

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🎄🎄🎄1/2 .ePUB, 368 pages Publication Date: October 4, 2022 By: G.P. Putnam's Sons Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Bettie Hughes once knew the comfort of luxury, flaunting a collection of designer purses and an enviable dream home in Hawaii. That was before she lost all her money. Long obsessed with her public image, Bettie boasts an extravagant lifestyle on social media. But the reality is Bettie is broke and squatting in Colorado, and her family has no idea. Christmas, with its pressure to meet familial expectations, is looming when Bettie plays a vinyl record of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” backward and accidentally conjures up Hall, the Holiday Spirit, in the form of a charming and handsome (if offbeat) man. Once the shock wears off, Bettie knows she’s stumbled upon the greatest gift: a chance to make all her holiday wishes come true, plus a ready-made fiancé. But as some of Bettie’s wishes lose their charm, she finds herself thrown off-kilter by Hall’s sweet nature.

Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun

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👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩1/2 Print Length: 368 pages Publication Date: November 1, 2022 By: Atria Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: One year ago, recent Portland transplant Ellie Oliver had her dream job in animation and a Christmas Eve meet-cute with a woman at a bookstore that led her to fall in love over the course of a single night. But after a betrayal the next morning and the loss of her job soon after, she finds herself adrift, alone, and desperate for money. Finding work at a local coffee shop, she’s just getting through the days—until Andrew, the shop’s landlord, proposes a shocking, drunken plan: a marriage of convenience that will give him his recent inheritance and alleviate Ellie’s financial woes and isolation. They make a plan to spend the holidays together at his family cabin to keep up the ruse. But when Andrew introduces his new fiancée to his sister, Ellie is shocked to discover it’s Jack—the mysterious woman she fell for over the course of one magical Chris

The Mistletoe Mixtape : A collection of twelve short stories to help you fall in love with Christmas, one song at a time by Sarah Shard Et al.

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🎵🎵🎵🎵 Print Length 268 pages Publication Date: September 27th, 2022 By: Independently published Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: The Mistletoe Mixtape, the second anthology from The Christmas Collective, is a diverse and inclusive mix of stories, with more swoon-worthy characters, second chances and happy endings. Amongst these twelve Christmas music inspired stories you will discover long lost love, festive fantasy, LGBTQ+ love stories, witty one liners and holiday romances. My Review: I loved how diverse this book was. It is a collection of love stories based on songs and there is a least one story everyone can relate to. I felt connected to these characters and that isn't an easy thing to do with a short story. I was cheering these characters on and willing them to find their person. I was happy when they did and felt sad and sorry for them when they didn't.   I appreciated that tough subject matter was dealt with while at the same time being romantic and holding the C

Robert's Hill (or The Time I Pooped My Snowsuit) and Other Christmas Stories by Jeremy John

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🛷 🛷 🛷 🛷🛷 .ePUB, 148 pages Publication Date: November 1st, 2022 By: Dundurn Press Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Robert’s Hill (or The Time I Pooped My Snowsuit) and Other Christmas Stories  is the perfect collection for Christmas in the real world. No talking snowman or cute woodland animal who saves Christmas (actually, there is a pigeon who steps in and saves the big day). This selection of heart-warming tales is about the true magic of the season: receiving the ultimate gift only to break it immediately; playing drinking games while watching a holiday special; getting divorced over what seemed like the perfect present.  Robert’s Hill  even settles the debate on the greatest Christmas movie ever made (that’s not it) and finally explains how the candy cane was invented (no one really knows, so why not make it up?). This collection will be enjoyed by everyone or, at least, anyone who still loves  Mister Rogers' Neighborhood , misses the toys they had as a kid, and thinks

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Joanna Bolouri

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🔔🔔🔔🔔 .ePUB, 416 pages Publication Date: October 31st, 2017 By: Quercus Publishing Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Thirty-eight year old Emily has a satisfying job, fab friends, an amazing car and, most importantly, a wonderful flat, exactly 411 miles away from the judgemental, batshit crazy, interfering family she reluctantly sees twice a year. In fact, the only minor stress in her life is her twenty-something neighbour Evan and his penchant for flirting, loud music and even louder sex . . . but he's nothing she can't handle. Emily also has a boyfriend called Robert and it's going really well. So well, in fact, that this year Emily is hoping to take him home for Christmas to meet her family. Finally she won't be subject to five days of nosy questions from her parents and pity looks from her younger married siblings. But when Robert breaks up with her a week before Christmas, Emily is gutted. How on earth is she going to face her family now? Enlisting the help of

A Gift Called Hope by Eva Jordan

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🎁🎁🎁🎁 Print Length, 296 pages Publication Date: October 21, 2022 By: Bloodhound Books Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Six-year-old Jack is counting the days to Christmas. But his grandmother is just counting the days until it’s over. For Jill, the holiday comes with painful memories, and she wants only to escape the recent past and its tragedies. She’s moved and started a new life running a food truck in Widmore Bay, a quaint seaside town, in order to flee her agonising history. It’s only for little Jack’s sake that Jill tolerates the tree and decorations. She just wants to spend Christmas with the curtains drawn, reading a book and drinking coffee. But this season, she may stumble onto a miracle that restores joy—and hope—in her heart. My Review: This is not your typical, fluffy Christmas read., but it is a heartfelt and hopeful one that I enjoyed very much. The author deals with some heavy subject matter such as addiction and grief. She does so in a very realistic and sensiti

The Sh!te Before Christmas by Serena Terry

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🎁🎁🎁🎁 Print Length 384 pages Publication Date: November 10, 2022 By: HarperCollins Publishers Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Christmas time, toddler meltdowns, teenage angst, marriage problems and wine. This year, the perfect Christmas is going to take a miracle…Twas the sh!te before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except for … mum! Like every mum, Tara wants a perfect Christmas for her family – but no-one else is lifting a finger and she’s losing her elf-ing mind. From the kids behaving badly (vaping! Potty training! The Nativity!), to a distracted husband acting very out of character, the last straw is Tara’s glamorous, feckless, boundary-less mother moving herself back in for the holidays. Can Tara pull off the holly jolly Christmas of her dreams? Will she deck the halls and not her family? Or is this a Christmas catastrophe waiting to happen? My Review: This book was so funny! I was completely unaware that the author has a Tiktok called Mamm

The Christmas Wish by Lindsey Kelk

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🎄🎄🎄🎄 .ePUB, 352 pages Publication Date: November 15, 2022 By: HarperCollins Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Newly single lawyer Gwen Baker is hoping that a family Christmas—countryside, a mountain of food and festive films—will salve the sting of her career hanging by a thread and her heart being trampled on. Because everyone else has their life sorted: even Dev, her boy-next-door crush, is now a tall, dark and handsome stranger with a fiancée. She can’t help wishing her future was clearer. Then Gwen wakes up to discover it’s Christmas day all over again. Like Groundhog Day but with eggnog. And family arguments. On repeat. As she figures out how to escape her own particular Christmas hell, Dev is the one bright spot. He might be all grown-up but underneath he’s just as kind and funny as she remembers. Maybe, just maybe, her heart can be mended after all. But how do you fall in love with someone who can’t remember you from one day to the next? My Review: This was my first read b

Driving Home for Christmas by Joanna Bolouri

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🚗🚗🚗🚗 .ePUB, 268 pages Publication Date: October 1, 2022 By: Quercus Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Three Christmases.  Two broken hearts.  One hell of a journey.  Driving home marks the start of the holidays for Kate and Ed, who have made this journey every Christmas of their 10-year long relationship. Normally the seasonal hits blare from the car stereo, and they are guaranteed to be wearing ridiculous jumpers in anticipation, but this year a frosty silence fills the car....A massive argument leads to the immediate collapse of their relationship. But the show must go on, so they decide to brave their families together one last time. With three Christmases to celebrate, an old flame waiting under the mistletoe and a shed-load of expectation around their future together, this most wonderful time of year is anything but. There will be turkey, tiffs and tantrums galore, but it's sure to be a Christmas they'll never forget. My Review: I just love books by Joanna Bolouri. I

A Christmas Memory by Richard Paul Evans

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🧑‍🎄🧑‍🎄🧑‍🎄🧑‍🎄🧑‍🎄 .ePUB, 192 pages Publication Date: November 22, 2022 By: Gallery Books Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: It’s 1967, and for young Richard it’s a time of heartbreak and turmoil. Over the span of a few months, his brother, Mark, is killed in Vietnam; his father loses his job and moves the family from California to his grandmother’s abandoned home in Utah; and his parents make the painful decision to separate. With uncertainty rattling every corner of his life, Richard does his best to remain strong—but when he’s run down by bullies at his new school, he meets Mr. Foster, an elderly neighbor who chases off the bullies and invites Richard in for a cup of cocoa. Richard becomes fast friends with the wise, solitary man who inspires Richard’s love for books and whose dog, Gollum, becomes his closest companion. As the holidays approach, the joy and light of Christmas seem unlikely to permeate the Evans home as things take a grim turn for the worse. And just when it

The Christmas Dress by Courtney Cole

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👗👗👗👗 .ePUB, 277 pages Expected Publication: 9 Nov 2021 By: William Morrow Paperbacks Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: When hopeful fashionista Meg Julliard must return to her hometown of Chicago to manage her late father’s apartment building, she thinks her dreams of making it in the fashion business are over. Add in her father’s eclectic roster of tenants who all need Meg’s attention (ASAP!), a host of building related disasters, and a handsome handyman she keeps embarrassing herself in front of, and this has all the makings for the worst Christmas she’s ever had. Ellie Wade, one of the building’s longtime residents, is also not feeling the Christmas Joy this year. She is preparing to move into a nursing home (reluctantly), and is in the process of sorting through her belongings to downsize. Every corner of her apartment holds memories, some good, some bad. But there’s one dress she hesitates to pack up as it represents both the best and worst night of her life. Ellie and Meg s

All I Want for Christmas by Joanna Bolouri

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🎁🎁🎁🎁 .ePUB, 236 pages Publication Date: October 1, 2020 By: Quercus Goodreads | Amazon   About The Book: When Nick loses his job and is dumped by his glamorous but demanding girlfriend, he is forced to grudgingly accept work as a Santa at a local Christmas grotto. As his friends are getting married or promoted, Nick spends his days being terrorised by unfriendly elves and cried on by snotty, spoiled children. Then he meets 4-year-old Alfie. All Alfie wants for Christmas is for his mum, Sarah, to be happy again. Moved by the boy's selfless wish, Nick arranges a date between Sarah and his best friend, Matt. But as Sarah and Alfie become part of all their lives, Nick realises that happiness for Sarah and Matt might mean heartbreak for himself. My Review: This was such a charming book, I couldn't get enough of Nick, he was so real and relatable. He was funny and sweet yet full of human flaws, but ones I could have forgiven him for as he made up for them in other ways. I loved

The Christmas Letters by Jenny Hale

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🎄🎄🎄 .ePUB, 235 pages Publication Date: October 3, 2022 By: Harpeth Road Press Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Elizabeth Holloway's sparkling world comes crashing down around her when her boyfriend of seven years drops the bomb that he’s leaving her—at Christmas. In an attempt to piece her life back together, she suddenly finds herself seven hundred miles from her New York City home, trudging through the snow, back at her childhood farm in the Great Smoky Mountains. And she isn’t expecting to meet visitor Paul Dawson with his dazzlingly blue eyes and warm smile, chipping away at her resolve to focus on figuring out who she is and what she really wants in life. Just when she starts to think things are moving in the right direction, a stack of letters from Elizabeth’s grandmother will change everything she thought she knew about her family and cause a divide between her and Paul that she never saw coming. Under the glitter of Christmas trees and bundles of mistletoe, Elizabeth

The Twelve Topsy-Turvy, Very Messy Days of Christmas by James Patterson and Tad Safra

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🎅🎅🎅🎅 .ePUB, 288 pages Publication Date: October 3, 2022 By: Little, Brown and Company Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Every year at Christmastime, Will and Ella Sullivan, and their father, Henry, come to a family agreement: Christmas is a holiday for other people. At their brownstone in Harlem, stockings go unstuffed, tinsel unstrewn, gifts unbought, mistletoe unhung, chestnuts unroasted, carols unplayed, cookies uncooked, a tree un-visible, and guests uninvited. Until guests start arriving anyway. In pairs and sixes, in sevens and tens—they keep coming. And they stay. For twelve long, hard, topsy-turvy, very messy days. That’s when the Sullivans discover that those moments in life that defy hope, expectation, or even imagination, might be the best gifts of all. My Review: This was such a funny little read. Everyone knows the song The Twelve Days of Christmas. Well, imagine those gifts coming every day! That's exactly what happens to the Sullivan family. They receive gifts

‎ Because You Loved Me by Beth Moran

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🏕️🏕️🏕️🏕️ .ePUB, 400 pages Expected Publication: 11 Jan 2023 By: Boldwood Books Goodreads | Amazon About The Book: Marion Miller needs a fresh start. Her childhood in Northern Ireland wasn’t easy, with a father who passed away when she was young and a mother who got lost in grief. Now grown-up and with family relations as tense as ever, Marion heads to England, to find out the truth about her father’s mysterious past – and hopefully an extended family who will love her as much as he did. Scarlett Obermann runs a holiday park in Sherwood Forest with her daughter Grace, but what’s she’s best at is making people feel like they belong. With her merry band of waifs and strays, Scarlett welcomes Marion with open arms, and it isn’t long before Marion finally understands what it means to find a home. As she tries to uncover her father’s story, Marion slowly blossoms, even daring to indulge in her crush on Reuben, the son of the Lord of the Manor, but she hasn’t quite out-run her past. And