Reading Fanatic Reviews
All ChristmasThe Christmas Compromise by Susan Hatler
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Mondadori, and Angus & Robertson.
The Christmas Compromise*
Strong Women in a Familial Battle of Wills
I am not a fan of any novel starting with what I consider to be an information dump. For me, it just sets a wrong tone because I think it’s a terrible writing device. Unfortunately, this book did start with a pretty prodigious data dump, as if the author wanted to catch us up on everything about the main character before she could get rolling. Once I got beyond that, though, I did find this story to be charming and fun to read for the most part. The first half of the book is dominated by the give-and-take of the hero and heroine as they tried to learn how to compromise and work together because of the unfortunate situation that their landlord put them in. There’s also a side plot going for the first half, where the heroine is avoiding seeing her mother. She does go to some extremes to accomplish this. She and her mother have a somewhat fractious relationship. Her mother is a strong-willed woman who has an opinion on just about everything and just wants her daughter to do what she believes is best. Morgan has her own ideas, of course. The second half of the story was definitely about the complexities of this mother-daughter relationship and the romance. Coming from a family of alpha females, I certainly recognized a certain level of veracity within the mother’s character. In fact, she did remind me of some of the women in my family. There are all sorts of lies and secrets going on in this story as well. For a story that is supposed to be a Christmas story, as the title would suggest, it didn’t really feel like it was about the holidays. If you enjoy romances with a strong dollop of family drama, you may very well enjoy this book.
My Christmas Darling by Vivien Mayfair
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
My Christmas Darling*
Books, Books, Books
Having read another book in the Snowdrop Valley series, I was a little surprised by this one. Sometimes reading books out of order can be a little confusing. I’m always intrigued by books that have an element about books in them. This book certainly had that, with a publishing house at the forefront, a woman who worked as a manuscript evaluator by day and was a writer by night, and much ado about a potential bestseller. I do have some knowledge of the publishing industry, and I definitely think there’s a fantastical element here because no new writer would have been offered such big money for a first novel. The heroine certainly created a heap of trouble for herself with the snowballing effects of her lies and cover-ups. I didn’t quite like the faux love triangle aspect of it. Mark is such a jerk, always wanting to tear the heroine down. Why she let that loser continue to have anything to do with her I can’t quite understand. Along with the romance, both the hero and the heroine had issues with their parents, too. The book did have some problems with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Comma splices seemed to be everywhere. All in all, something about this book just didn’t sit right for me; it wasn’t the feel-good Christmas story I was hoping for.
Alone for the Holidays by Vivien Mayfair
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Alone for the Holidays*
Not Alone for the Holidays
This is a super short, quick read. The heroine has gotten herself into a bit of a pickle when she invites a man she had met through a Goodreads group to spend Christmas with her. She had felt sorry for him because he had lost his wife the previous Christmas; this would be his first Christmas alone. She hasn’t been telling the truth about herself online, however. She’s a famous author but prefers to hang out on reader forums anonymously so she can just enjoy sharing books with like-minded book lovers. She’s even lied about her looks, believing that no man would be interested in a middle-aged, overweight woman. When the man shows up, she gets deeper and deeper into lies.
I thought that some of the language choices were a bit strange in places. I also felt that sometimes the writing seemed like it was trying to decide whether it was omniscient or third person. The story is so short that we can’t really get a window into the basis for their actual relationship, how they supposedly fell for each other while they were emailing back and forth. I just feel like this needed more.
Mrs. Saint Nick by Caroline Mickelson
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
Mrs. Saint Nick*
Learning More About Herself and Christmas
What an utterly charming holiday novella! I’ll admit, I had a hard time getting into it because the language seemed a little strange and simple at the beginning, but once I got used to it and got into the characters, it was fine. Holly is an efficiency expert who is hired by Santa to make things better for operations at the North Pole. She’s a very straightforward young woman who is dedicated to her job, but she has a troubled past with Christmas because of her parents. Santa has her work directly with his son Nick, who goes by Saint Nick. Holly sees him as a deadbeat, privileged son who doesn’t pull his weight. As they work together, though, things gradually change between them, but Holly nearly puts Christmas in jeopardy. In trying to right things, Holly learns more, and in a more profound way, about what Christmas truly means.
Parts of this book had me smiling because I found it fun to look at Santa’s doings as a business. Think naughty and nice reports, loading schedules, and other things like that. Nick and Holly were surprisingly well-drawn characters, and who could not love Santa? The story had more depth than I thought it was going to have. There are definitely some strange issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Comma splices were rife through the entire novella. Other commas were left out completely, like the required one between independent clauses joined by “and.” I do find these kinds of things distracting, especially when they are just so prevalent in a book. However, I did thoroughly enjoy this book and its look at the true meaning of Christmas and gift giving.
Christmas at Clove Cottage by Diana Bold
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Christmas at Clove Cottage*
Potential Good But Misses the Mark
For all that needed to happen in this book, it is actually quite short. It is written the dual perspectives of the hero and the heroine. She is a young woman who is working on her bucket list because she is dying from a rare form of muscle cancer. One of the things she wants to do before she dies is spend Christmas alone at a little remote cabin. Even though her family objects, that is what she’s going to do. Nixon, the hero, is really a jerk for most of the book, unfortunately. He wasn’t treated well by his last girlfriend, and he takes it out on Christmas and the world. I thought the story had too much telling rather than showing things happen. A story like this really had the potential to be one that could tug at the heartstrings, with a young woman who is dying and maybe perhaps finding the love of her life before she passes. But with so much telling, there was emotional distance. And I didn’t quite buy the insta-love, especially considering what the relationship was like before that. The story definitely needed better development of both the characters and the love story.
The Christmas Tree Inn by J. L. Jarvis
Available at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo, Google Play, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Thalia, Mondadori, Angus & Robertson, Indigo (Chapters), and Bol.de
The Christmas Tree Inn by J. L. Jarvis*
A Little Snow, A Charming Inn, All the Christmas Bells and Whistles . . .
This is a typical holiday romance with a self-sacrificing heroine and a hero who is on the cusp of a major life change. I could just about visualize it all, the snowy inn with all the holiday trimmings. I felt that the pacing was a little off in places, at times moving too quickly while in other places moving too slowly. I wasn’t a fan of the heroine’s best girlfriend. She was unappealing right away because most of the time she acted and reacted more like a young teenager rather than a grown woman. All in all, though, I enjoyed this Christmas romance.
Witch Myth Christmas by Alexandria Clarke
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Witch Myth Christmas*
Paranormal Christmas a la Groundhog Day… Plus!
The first part of this book feels like a paranormal holiday version of Groundhog Day. Christmas day keeps repeating over and over with slight variations. Only one person seems to be aware of the time slip. I quite enjoyed this author’s writing style. She uses active verbs and deep point of view that makes you feel like you are living the story along with Noelle as she tries to figure everything out. There is a little bit of an information dump at the beginning, including the rather hackneyed use of a window so that a first-person narrator can describe herself, but this is written better than most, so I can forgive it. I loved following the twists and turns of the story. A fun and engaging read.
Robyn: A Christmas Bride by Jacqui Nelson
Available at Amazon only
Free with Kindle Unlimited
Robin: A Christmas Bride*
Will It Be the Party of Her Dreams?
Robyn and Max have feelings for each other, but neither has revealed them. Robyn gets it into her head that Max would prefer her to be more ladylike; growing up with three brothers, she is more of a tomboy. So she enlists the aid of the brides of Noelle to help her become more ladylike in a just a few days before a special party at which she hopes to receive a marriage proposal. Robyn and Max had been living in Denver, but Robin went to Noelle for the special tutelage. Max does follow her, even though he’s sworn that he wouldn’t go back to Noelle.
The absolute highlights of this book are the crazy Llewellyn brothers with their silly, fun banter and Grandpa Gus. Another fun theme running throughout this book was of men knitting! I thought Max had a good character arc about him coming to grips with his feelings about the town of Noelle. While I did enjoy the snappy dialogue and the other concepts I just mentioned, I felt that Robyn’s motivations for change were weak, and the plot felt contrived with the idea of a 4-day time limit on Robyn’s transformation and the proposal. I also felt to that the conflict between the couple was a non-conflict; if either just could have said their true feelings—and the reasons for not doing so didn’t seem to be substantial enough—things could have been solved rather quickly.
That said, if you suspend your disbelief about the weak motivation and the contrived plot, you might find yourself just enjoying the banter and the quirky characters we’ve come to know and love in this series. Once I realized this was just a light piece of Christmas fluff, like a good Hallmark movie, I was content just to let the story unfold and enjoy the ride.
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