so-soFour novellas in one by four different authors.
Making Spirits Bright - 1*, absolutely dreadful. Besides the story making 0% sense, the entire plot of a rich woman just deciding she wishes she had a kid or two and immediately just running out to try and rush through an adoption felt honestly icky, like kids were a commodity that she could just go out and buy on a whim like a puppy. It was weird. But maybe I'm sensitive to it because my youngest ⬇
pickThis is what I'm looking for in holiday romance!! Cheesy, predictable, but still loads of fun with likable characters and storylines that actually make sense!! 😂 I'm a HUGE sucker for marriage of convenience stories, and this one played out pretty well. Super cute, and I'm planning to read the next book this week!!
#WinterGames #HolidayBookDragons @LiseWorks
panIf I had to choose one word for how I felt while reading this series of books, I think it would be “baffled.“ These characters constantly made decisions that made no sense. The narrative frequently made no sense. The motivations made pretty much no sense. A few samples: two grown adults have a “cheesecake fight“ in the kitchen ruining the desert and dinner party they're attending (after the FMC starts EATING IT WITH HER BARE HANDS?!); two people ⬇
pickFive years ago a high school senior disappeared. Although her body was never found, police decided that she was murdered by her boyfriend, who committed suicide a few days later. However, Pip - who is now a high school senior herself - has never believed that the boyfriend was the murderer. With the help of the boyfriend's younger brother, she sets out to reexamine the evidence. I really liked the format of this book, with parts of it Pip's notes⬇
pickAnother soft pick. This one starts strong with 12-year-old Naomi discovering that her dad is actually a serial killer and rescuing his latest victim. It's super creepy. Adult Namoi has changed her last name and tried to put her past behind her. She's a successful and somehow stupidly rich photographer and purchases a very rundown but beautiful old house in Washington state. That's where this book got muddled. I actually didn't mind the ⬇
pickSince I actually finished this 700pg book, you would think that I would have strong feelings about it. But I weirdly don't. There's a lot here that I enjoyed. It's a time-travel book, which isn't always my thing, but it's handled here in a way that actually did (mostly) make sense to me. I actually enjoyed the format, which is a mixture of journal entries from various characters, plus other documents, notes, transcripts, etc.
This book was ⬇
My #SeasonalCozies pick for May is The Cornish Wedding Murder, because our wedding anniversary takes place in May, and we will be visiting Cornwall! 💍👰🤵♂️🇬🇧
@OriginalCyn620 and @CoffeeNBooks have already posted their Mother‘s Day themed picks, and @Read4life is continuing with the Calendar Murder Mystery series. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else will be reading!
DebinHawaii, BookmarkTavern, kspenmoll, teariffic.books, Graciouswarriorprincess, mhillis, Gissy, BethM, Librarybelle, thebacklistbook, Crinoline_Laphroaig, mcipher, Chrissyreadit, Avanders, PathfinderNicole, ElizaMarie, sblbooks, Allylu, BrandedKristen, mom_of_4, JessieKB
#LittenDetectives : we‘re two weeks away from our next #NancyDrewBR discussion!
Questions will be posted on the 15th!
In the meantime, @lauraisntwilder shared info on a video game based on last month‘s book on Shadow Ranch: https://store.steampowered.com/app/572740/Nancy_Drew_The_Secret_of_Shadow_Ranch/
rubyslippersreads, DebinHawaii, DGRachel, BarkingMadRead, Jennifer3, kspenmoll, TheBookHippie, PurpleyPumpkin, MariaW, CogsOfEncouragement, catiewithac, AnneCecilie, Born.A.Reader, mrp27, Deblovestoread, Bookwormjillk, Read4life, StayCurious, bookandbedandtea, Laughterhp, Bren912, kwmg40, jlhammar, CSeydel, Ruthiella, inthegreensandblues, dabbe, Enchanted_Bibliophile, Allylu, TheAromaofBooks, Charityann, Roary47, Pageturner1, KristiAhlers, peanutnine, PageShifter, AmandaBlaze, julieclair
so-soI ended up feeling pretty ambivalent towards my pick for this month's #ReadorDonate challenge. There are a lot of positive reviews for this one, but I found the pacing to be slow and never particularly warmed towards the characters. I never felt a sense of urgency, or like time was running out or that something bad was going to happen. Just... oh, your husband isn't who you thought he was. I guess we should find who he really was. Oh. Awkward. ⬇
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Runaway Christmas - 3.5*, best of the bunch. Fun story where a teen runs away to visit her aunt in NYC for Christmas. However, the aunt is having a rough couple of days where things keep going wrong and she keeps getting saddled with more random responsibilities (starting with the neighbor's dog and escalating from there). Super fun and cute. ⬇ 1w
Christmas on Cape Cod - 2*, Would have been higher if ⬇ 1w
#ReadorDonate - DONATE 😂 @julieclair
#WinterCosy #GottaCatchEmAllWinter (Mountain, Storm, Family, Hot Drink) @PuddleJumper
#Adventathon @BookmarkTavern
#WickedWords (Family, Turkey) @AsYouWish
#ChristmasAtoZ @Texreader
#ReadtheUSA (New Hampshire)
#ISpyBingo #BookSpinBingo
#GingerbreadJourney @Bookwormjillk 1w