"Winter Fire: Christmas with G. K. Chesterton" by Ryan Whitaker Smith

What an intriguing concept for a devotion book!

Ryan Whitaker Smith chose thirty passages from G. K. Chesterton's writings that deal with Christmas, then paired them with Scripture verses and wrote a daily devotion around each pairing.  I had a great time reading one each morning in December, and then I spent the next week or so reading through the poems, essays, and a couple of short stories by Chesterton that fill out the second half of the book.  

And there are even some fun traditional British Christmas recipes!  They're things that got mentioned elsewhere in the book, and I just might have to try my hand at a couple of them.  And the book ends with explanations of some fun old-fashioned games to play with friends and family.  

All in all, this book is a little treasure trove, and I'm glad I have added it to my library :-)

Particularly Good Bits:

Our natural disposition is rarely the personification of cheerfulness. On this point it is crucial to remember that habits only become habits through repetition. The more we practice joy, the more effortlessly it will come to us. The more we revel, the more we will become revelers. The more we embody cheerfulness, the more naturally we will be of good cheer. Thank God that Christmas descends so inconsiderately upon us, giving a "last push" to those "afraid to be festive" -- for often we are numbered among them (p. 68).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  Nothing here you couldn't read aloud as a family.

"A Merry Christmas and Other Christmas Stories" by Louisa May Alcott

What a wholesome and cozy collection of Christmas stories!  Well, stories plus a section from the very beginning of Little Women.  

I thoroughly enjoyed all the stories here -- there wasn't a single one that didn't move me in some way and bring a smile to my face.  I'd read a few of them before, but long ago, so they felt pretty fresh and new to me again. 

The stories included here are:

"A Merry Christmas" -- the March sisters share their Christmas breakfast and find their own joy doubled, then exchange and receive gifts with their own family plus others.

"Kate's Choice" -- a wealthy orphan must decide which of her aunts and uncles she will live with now, and surprises everyone with her choice.

"The Quiet Little Woman" -- a warmhearted orphan is taken in by a family to be their maid-of-all-work, but yearns for their kindness and friendship more than anything.

"Tilly's Christmas" -- a poor child rescues a half-frozen bird and shares kindness and love with those around her, and is rewarded by an unexpected friend.

"What Love Can Do" -- people living in a boarding house with a poor family acquire a fresh understanding of what it means to show love and kindness to others.

"Rosa's Tale" -- an aging horse uses the Christmas gift of speech to tell the story of her life.

"Mrs. Podgers' Teapot" -- a widow learns the truth about her dead husband, a man who lodges at her house, and herself.  Probably my favorite story of all!

Particularly Good Bits:

Half the real beauty, virtue, and romance of the world gets put into humble souls, hidden in plain bodies (p. 117, "Mrs. Podgers' Teapot").

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Good, wholesome, heartwarming stories.

This has been my 48th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.  Looks like I'll be finishing this list and starting another one this winter sometime!

"Southern Snow" by B. R. Goodwin

This is a really enjoyable Christian romcom.  Georgia is a capable and believable modern woman, trying to juggle caring for her aging parents with running the family business and being a good older sister to her siblings, but with little time for her own growth.  Enter Lakeland, the bad boy she almost dated in high school, who may or may not have become a good guy.  Sparks of all sorts fly, of course.

I am not always a fan of dual timeline stories, but that writing device worked very well here.  I liked that we got to see how everything built up and then fell apart between Georgia and Lakeland, but in little pieces here and there, not all info-dumped at once.  

I look forward to reading the other books in the Sugartree series by B. R. Goodwin -- and I'll probably try to read them during the seasons when they take place, like I did with this Christmastime book.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for discussions of drug use, lots of thinking about being attracted to a guy, and some lightly described kisses.

"The Golden Hour" by Carrie Brownell, illustrated by Hannah Hill

I don't often review picture books here, but The Golden Hour by Carrie Brownell is a Christmas picture book, and that has made all the difference.  

This is a lovely story about the wooden angels at Westminster Cathedral in London coming alive for one hour every Christmas night.  They usually spend their hour singing and flying about the cathedral, but one night, one angel sneaks outside and has an encounter with a child... and I can't spoil the rest, I really can't.  The last page gave me goosebumps AND brought tears to my eyes, so yeah, very good stuff here.

The illustrations by Hannah Hill are beautiful without being either too cutesy or too grandiose.  They suit the story perfectly.

This is too long to read to young children -- probably best for kids around 5 and up.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  Absolutely wholesome and perfect for kids.

"The Cricket on the Hearth" by Charles Dickens

I can't believe I'd never read this before!  Somehow, I thought it was about a literal cricket sitting on a hearth, telling us stories about the people he's met and things he's experienced.  It is not about that AT ALL.  

I mean, there's a cricket in the story that does chirp near a hearth.  But it's not a talking or sentient cricket.  It's kind of a symbol of contentment and coziness in your own home and among your own family members.  I'm so glad this was one pick for this year's #DickensDecember readings over on Instagram, because I absolutely delighted in this book.

This book is actually about a sweet and cheerful young wife, her older and devoted husband, and some of their friends.  A shadow of suspicion falls over their happy home for a while, and I devoured the last couple chapters of this book in great worry over what was going to happen.

SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH.  One of the things I liked best were some cool parallels to the Biblical account of Mary and Joseph.  A young and sweet wife, an older husband who suddenly suspects things are not right with his marriage, his plan for a quiet and private separation, and a sudden revelation of unknown facts that makes everything okay again.

I am not always the biggest fan of Charles Dickens, but this is going on my list (with A Christmas Carol and A Tale of Two Cities) of Dickens books I truly and thoroughly enjoy!

Particularly Good Bits:

But let us be genteel, or die! (p. 74)  (I am guessing that Amy March's line "Let us be elegant, or die" in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is an allusion to this line, since the March sisters are such fans of Dickens.)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some allusions to suspected marital unfaithfulness.  No cussing, smut, or violence.

This has been my 47th book read and reviewed for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Hear the Falling Snow" by Storm Shultz

I read Hear the Falling Snow by Storm Shultz in tiny little nibbles over the course of three weeks.  The plot involves a lot of delicious Christmas baking, and the book as a whole felt like some kind of rich and comforting and nourishing food -- like homemade chicken soup or something.

The main character, Adeline, is grieving for her mother.  Her sisters pay for her to go to a month-long Christmas baking seminar-and-retreat at a fancy mansion.  The baking classes are taught by a celebrity chef.  There's an assortment of quirky and lovely side characters also taking the classes.  And there's a handsome, sweet, single groundskeeper named Luke who seems like a perfect match for Adeline.

If only he wasn't planning to move to Turkey to become a missionary.  In January.

But if there weren't any problems to overcome, there'd be no plot, right?

One of the things that made this a perfect book for me to read this particular year is that Adeline is a ballet dancer.  She performed professionally for years, and now she teaches ballet.  There are references all through the book too The Nutcracker... and my teenage ballerina was in her own first production of The Nutcracker this year!  So that felt especially timely.

Also, I love to bake.  There are recipes at the end of the book, and I am totally going to try some of them!

Also, both Adeline and Luke genuinely enjoyed snow, and I love snow myself, so that made me like them both a lot.

I love how Storm Shultz always writes characters that feel like I could meet them myself somewhere, like they're real people living in the real world.  They're not just relatable, they're realistic in their ordinariness.  Their problems feel normal and real and understandable.  

Finally, since I am still grieving my dad's death a little over a year ago, Adeline's storyline held extra poignancy for me.

Particularly Good Bits:

This is the worst part about grieving.  Grief hits you smack in the face anytime, anywhere.  It doesn't matter if you're eating heavenly bread or if you're driving down the road.  Grief does not care.

Why are you flirting?  You just had an existential crisis in the bathroom!  Stop flirting!

Here I am at forty-one, still needing Dad for advice and guidance.  Then again, any good dad will always be needed -- no matter the age of his children.

"Oh, and what did Mom always say?"
"Wash your nose and stay away from raccoons?"
"No, the other thing."  Lissy snickers.

I smile because I know exactly what she's talking about.  "God is good.  No matter what."

I don't want to be the person who sits around and misses the life she could have had.  I want to be the person who gives a toast about how she sees hope for the future, loves her present, and doesn't regret the past.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  Good, clean, wholesome.  No smut, only semi-described kisses.  No violence, no gore, no cussing.

"The Silent Night" by Sarah Beran

This is EXACTLY the level of romanceyness that I like in a book.  We did not spend several sentences every chapter or two rhapsodizing over what it might be like to kiss the love interest.  No one stared at the other person's lips.  No one daydreamed about touching their love interest's velvety skin or running a hand through their hair.  The main characters fell in love via letters.  Theirs was absolutely a slow-burn, friends-to-more story, and I am HERE FOR IT.

The Silent Night is a Sleeping Beauty retelling, plus a Santa Claus origin story, and you had better believe I am also very much here for a romance between Sleeping Beauty and Santa Claus.  Though they're named Princess Holly and Dominic Klause here, and Dominic has sled dogs instead of a sleigh with reindeer.  Every chapter has a snippet of "The Night Before Christmas" as a header, and I loved how those got worked into the story.

Particularly Good Bits:

Take a look around you and see what there is that you can do in small ways... Can you offer encouragement or a kind smile?  Find the ways that you can serve, and do them.  You may not be able to change the financial and economic state of the kingdom, but you can do something even more powerful: You can bring hope and love (p. 74).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's clean, it's bright, it's lovely.  No smut, gore, violence, cussing, or anything else objectionable.

"The Midnight Blizzard" by Mary Mecham

Awwww, this was exactly what I wanted to read during the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Sweet, funny, upbeat, and cozy.  And with lovable dogs galore!

Noelle has no intention of trying to get the prince to fall in love with her.  She wants to spend the week of the future-wife-finding-balls and parties searching the castle for any trace of her father's will, which has disappeared.  She's quite sure her father would have left her his estate so he could continue his work helping mages get more equal rights.  

In this kingdom, mages are people who can do magic, and ordinary people are suspicious and distrustful of mages.  Mages and non-mages can't marry, and mages aren't even able to attend most schools.  Noelle and her father were working together to change all that, but his death may have derailed all of that.

Noelle's stepmother ditches Noelle and her dog Kodiak in the middle of the forest, where they're attacked by wolves.  Kodiak is injured protecting Noelle, but they're both rescued by a handsome mage named Jack and his team of sled dogs.  After getting Kodiak to a healer, Jack takes Noelle to the castle.  While he helps her try to find her father's will, the two of them start falling in love, but marriage between mages and ordinary humans is forbidden, a law Noelle's father was trying to get reversed before he died.

This is a Cinderella retelling with a Christmasy twist, though it's really more wintery than Christmasy.  It's the first thing I've read by Mary Mecham, but I am sure it won't be the last.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some kisses and yearning.  No smut, no real cuss words (just fake ones like "by holly"), little violence (there's that wolf attack, and at least one slap).  I let my 13-yr-old read it as soon as I finished it, and she thought it was really fun, though it did have a bit more romance than she prefers.  That makes sense, since it's a young adult book, and she's not a young adult yet.

"The Mistletoe Countess" by Pepper Basham

Do you ever thoroughly enjoy a book, except for one small aspect of it?  Or, do you ever want to recommend a book to lots and lots of people, but feel like you have to attach a caveat to that recommendation?

This is that kind of book, for me.

I loved the characters.  I mean, full-on loved them.  And you know that usually means I will love a book.  My goodness, Gracelynn was infectiously loveable -- never quite so abounding in endless optimism as to be a "manic pixie dream girl," and never quite so flawed that I lost patience with her.  She was simply a very believable eighteen-year-old woman of 1913, with lots of energy and enthusiasm and imagination.  In fact, she reminded me of a more-outgoing version of Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey, as I suspect she is meant to.

And then there's Frederick, Grace's new husband.  Mysterious.  Handsome.  Reticent.  Hesitant.  Hopeful.  Despairing.  Jaded.  Yearning.  In other words, just the sort of fictional hero I tend to fall for.  Add in that he was very kind and helpful, and also very respectful of his new wife, and yet never too-good-to-be-true.

And I loved the romance.  Grace and Frederick enter into an arranged marriage of convenience, under very inauspicious circumstances -- a marriage that Grace instigates, by the way.  I usually don't like the whole marriage-of-convenience trope, as it almost always feels forced and contrived.  It made sense here.  As did the fact that it was an arranged marriage (of sorts).  But the best part was Basham's treatment of marital intimacy.  She portrayed it perfectly -- as a joyful joining of two people's hearts, minds, and bodies.  

We are not subjected to bedroom scenes, but we fully appreciate that both wife and husband enjoy each other thoroughly, and that their intimate moments serve to enhance their appreciation of each other in other aspects of their lives as well.  This is not portrayed in a smutty or titillating way at all -- I never once felt like I should skim ahead or skip whole paragraphs (or pages).  And that is absolutely phenomenal.  I have never, ever read a book that treated marital intimacy in such a wholesome, healthy, practical, and uplifting way.  So commendable.

The mystery was interesting, the side characters were all well-rounded, and the setting was great.  Most of the historical details were just right.  (I was really annoyed at the very end, though, when Grace and Frederick gave someone a copy of Ulysses by James Joyce -- this book takes place in 1913, and Ulysses was not published until 1921.  A twelve-second internet search turns up that info, and both author and editor[s] should absolutely have caught that.  Badly done.)

However.

The writing just occasionally... hitched.  There were word choices scattered randomly about that made no sense, or that alllllllmost made sense.  Like saying someone should use a spyglass to look at a clue -- clearly, they mean magnifying glass. 'Spyglass' is not simply a synonym for 'magnifying glass,' folks.  It's a small, hand-held, collapsible telescope.  Think pirates, not Sherlock Holmes.  The other glitches were similar -- as if someone wanted to make the writing more interesting and tried substituting "unusual" words for the correct words, only those unusual words didn't actually fit.  

I am just going to have to say that the storytelling and characterization and plotting and dialog are all excellent here, but this book needed a better editor.  If glitchy word choices don't bug you (and they probably really don't bug like 90% of readers!), then you might very well love this book with no reservations!

Particularly Good Bits:

Romance and marriage proved such daunting prospects in reality, but hidden within the pages of her beloved books, their appeal sparkled with magic and mystery (p. 10).

A deep surge of protection rose within him.  He hadn't been able to shield his own innocent heart, but he could attempt to protect hers (p. 96).

The world took on a ruddy glow through her eyes, and his life of loneliness came alive with colors and beauty and hope (p. 101).

"Grandfather would say, 'Kindness is your most valiant weapon.  People may fight against many things, but against kindness, they fall unprepared'" (p. 103).

Was marriage truly supposed to be this delightful?  Clandestine kisses in the study?  Stormy nights of passion?  Enchanting discussions about anything from fiction to architecture?  She hadn't read a single book that painted a picture of marriage remotely close to this (p. 286).

"You are soul mates by choice and will.  How closely you wrap your souls around one another is of your own choosing" (p. 194).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16.  Like I said, the love portrayed here never felt titillating or dirty, but I still would not let a young teen read this.  There is quite a bit of on-page kissing and such.  Their minds don't need to stray these directions just yet.  There is no bad language, but there is some violence and several scenes of characters in peril, even deadly danger.  

"The Hart of Christmas" by Latisha Sexton

I started reading The Hart of Christmas before Christmas and set it aside because I just wasn't in the mood for a romantic comedy.  Picked it up again (well, pulled it up again, as I was reading the ebook version on my phone) a couple of days after Christmas and finished it off in two days.  Mood reading do be that way sometimes, heh.

This is a cute Christmas romance set in the mountains of Tennessee (so just a hop, skip, and jump away from where I grew up in the foothills of North Carolina).  Millie Jane's music career hasn't taken off, and her best friend back home has offered her house to Millie for Christmas because said best friend and her husband will be out of town.  But when Millie Jane gets there, she discovers that her best friend's stepbrother is also staying at that house, laid up with a broken leg.

That stepbrother is a hotshot hockey player named Dex... who happens to have been Millie Jane's dream guy in high school until he broke her heart.  Dex asked to stay there right after Millie's best friend offered the place to her, and they figured Millie would go stay with her grandma instead, except a blizzard hits before she can leave, which means Forced Proximity Romance, here we come.

I actually don't like forced proximity romance much, which is part of why I set this book aside for a while.  If done juuuuuuuuuust specifically right, I will be okay with it, but if the "forced" part feels like the characters could really get out of it if they wanted to, I will back off.  The blizzard makes it work, because I have driven the Blue Ridge Mountains in the winter and you do NOT mess around on winter mountain roads.  Unplowed roads can equal death.  Frozen roads can equal death.  So, I accepted that this really was an inescapable situation, but kind of grudgingly.

Once I decided to accept that, I liked the book a lot.  Millie Jane was really sweet, and she did a LOT of great character growth over the course of the book.  This was aided by flashback chapters showing how she and Dex met and almost kinda sorta had a high school romance, and what went wrong between them years ago.  

But I never did like Dex.  Cocky and arrogant guys with a high opinion of their own worth tend to grate on me, and Dex very much was all of that and then some.  Dude could not stop smirking.  Worse yet, he teased Millie All The Time.  I don't like people who tease constantly.  Even worse, he called her by a nickname she hated, and he knew she hated it, and so I was annoyed with him every time he used it.  (Just by the way, I hate the nickname 'Rach' when used by anyone except my Grandma Haack [who is dead], one friend from high school, and my German professor from college.  If you are not one of those three select people, do not call me Rach.  Call me Rachel or Hamlette or Ray, okay?)  

It is okay to have a book romance where I don't actually love both halves of the couple, as long as they genuinely work together in and of themselves.  Which Millie and Dex do.  So I can be cool with their romance, but if I knew them in real life, they would be one of those couples where I just hang out with the wife and we don't invite them to our house as a couple because I'm going to be on edge all the time.  (Actually, I don't know any couples like that right now, but I did in college.)  So... was this a fun Christmasy romance?  Yup.  Is it one I will reread routinely?  Probably not.  However, if you are a fan of clean, Christian contemporary romance books, you will probably dig this a lot!  But it's a genre I only dip into a few times a year.

Particularly Good Bits:

But the sad, lifeless trees bear a startling resemblance to my own empty heart.

I've never understood the whole follow your heart thing.  My heart doesn't know what it wants half the time.  How am I supposed to follow it?  Not to mention that the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things.

"Millie, we live in a fallen world.  No one is perfect.  We will hurt one another.  The important thing is that we come clean when we do and that we learn to forgive one another."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for discussions of a man admiring a woman and trying not to imagine her in her bathing suit, mild and flirtatious innuendo in dialog, and quite a bit of kissing.  Nothing I felt uncomfortable reading myself, but not something I would let my tween daughter read, either.  No cussing or violence, and no smut or spice -- not even a "closed door" or "fade to black" love scene.

This has been my 59th book read off my TBR list for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Classic Christmas Crime Stories" ed. by David Stuart Davies

There's something about the bustle and chaos of the lead-up to Christmas that makes me crave the restoration of order that a good mystery provides.  This collection of festive mysteries and other crime stories was just what I wanted to read in the middle of December!

There are eleven short stories here, ranging from very familiar Christmas mysteries like "The Blue Carbuncle" by A. Conan Doyle to story featuring the characters from the BBC show Rosemary and Thyme.  I enjoyed nearly all of the stories ("The Case of the Seven Santas" by H. R. F. Keating got really tedious after a while, for me).  My favorites, in the order in which they appear, were:

• "The Blue Carbuncle" by A. Conan Doyle (already one of my absolute favorite Sherlock Holmes short stories)
  
  
• "The Case of the Dead Wait" by Peter Lovesey
  
  
• "Markheim" by Robert Louis Stevenson
  
  
• "Death on the Air" by Ngaio Marsh
  
  
• "Stuffing" by Edgar Wallace

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for murder, bloodshed, poisonings, a smattering of bad language here and there, and occasional hints at lascivious behavior.

This is my 58th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

Top Ten Tuesday: Additionally

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf."  I received five books for Christmas, won one in a giveaway, and bought the others myself over the past couple of months.  Behold!

The Bookish Bandit by Erica Dansereau and Britt Howard (Christian contemporary romance involving book publishing)

A Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin (festive picture book I loved as a kid)

A Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin (festive picture book I also loved as a kid)

The Hart of Christmas by Latisha Sexton (Christian contemporary Christmas romance)

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, specifically the 50th Anniversary edition from Unwin Paperbacks (classic fantasy adventure)

Kling Klang Gloria by Jenni Sauer (sci-fi fairy tale retelling)

The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham (historical fiction mystery romance)

Persuasion by Jane Austen, specifically the Winchester Austen edition from Worth Press Ltd. (classic novel of second chances and self-discovery)

Through Thorny Ways by Jennifer Q. Hunt (Christian historical fiction set just after WWI)

The Weight of Air by Kimberly Duffy (Christian historical fiction involving a circus)

That's my list for this week.  Did you get books for Christmas?  Or give some?  I did give a handful as gifts, as well as receiving some.

"The L. M. Montgomery Christmas Collection"

I love L. M. Montgomery's writing, and I love Christmas, so I am naturally drawn to her festive stories and poetry.  The Christmas with Anne collection is one of my favorite Christmastime reads, so I am excited to add this new collection to my shelf.  It does have some overlap with that other volume -- both contain the "Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves" from Anne of Green Gables, as well as several of the same short stories.  This collection has a couple of different Anne chapters too, and six Christmas/winter poems that are paired with appropriate classic paintings.  There are paintings to go with the short stories and Anne chapters as well, and I love all the thought that obviously went into the pairings.

I bought the paperback edition of this book, but I wish I had gotten the hardcover instead.  I see there is now a pocket-sized hardcover edition available, as well as the full-sized one, and I might get that for myself and put this paperback copy into my kids' box of Christmas books that we haul out every year.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's everything sweet, wholesome, and lovely.

This is my 57th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Noel Streatfeild's Christmas Stories" by Noel Streatfeild

This is EXACTLY the sort of book I want to read at Christmastime!  Heartwarming, sweet, uplifting short stories featuring realistic people in realistic situations that are treated with humor and kindness.  

My favorite stories were:

+ "The Moss Rose," about a young skater who loses her costume and skates on the subway, but it all turns out okay.

+ "The Princess," about a princess who goes shoe-shopping and gets shanghaied into performing in a ballet incognito.

+ "The Chain," about a boy who imagines that all of his favorite fictional characters form a chain of joy that helps his sister get well enough to come home from the hospital for Christmas.

+ "Christmas at Collers," about some city kids who are forced to spend Christmas in the country with their ailing grandmother and discover that hustle and bustle are not essential elements for a merry Christmas.

I absolutely loved this collection!

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  As wholesome and uplifting as they come.

This is my 22nd book read and reviewed for my 4th Classics Club list, and my 55th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Death of a Christmas Tree Salesman" by Patricia Meredith

Yes, I know it's not even Halloween yet.  But, as someone who keeps Christmas in her heart the whole year 'round like Ebenezer Scrooge, I snuggled right up to read this book even though it's not the Christmas season yet!  In fact, I had such a great time immersing myself in all things Christmas while reading this book, that coming back to the real world and having to think about things like Halloween costumes for my kids was always a bit disorienting whenever I stopped reading.

Anyway, Death of a Christmas Tree Salesman is a pretty jolly book, even though it does involve murders.  The main character is a snowman named Sam Shovel, and if that fact combined with the cheeky book title doesn't clue you in to the kind of festive, referential fun this book contains, probably nothing will.  References to classic mystery books and characters abound, from Sam Shovel (think of Sam Spade) to Nick and Nora Claus (instead of Nick and Nora Charles).  And references to Christmas carols and poems pop up everywhere, as well as innumerable iterations of Santa Claus from around the world.

I absolutely loved how Meredith created a Santa network, with international Santas like Egypt's Baba Noel, Germany's Der Weihnachtsmann, Russia's Ded Moroz, Italy's Babbo Natale, and China's Sheng Dan Lao Ren all being distinct people who work together with Nick Claus to spread Christmas presents and joy around the world.  That was so clever, and it created a natural way to include all kinds of different Christmas traditions and treats in the story.

The mystery revolves around the mysterious death of Mr. O. Tannenbaum, owner of the North Pole's Christmas tree farm.  Sam Shovel and an Icelandic "Yule Lad" named Kertasnikir (secretary to the now deceased Tannenbaum) set out to find the culprit, which is a bit difficult since Kertas spends most of his time trying to quell his urge to eat candles and Sam Shovel's memory is pretty bad since he's a snowman.  But they persevere and eventually do find the killer.

I am not ordinarily a big fan of cozy mysteries, as they can often be too cutesy for my taste.  I prefer hard-boiled mysteries where murder is shown to be the abomination it is.  BUT I make an exception for Christmas mysteries, which can be as cozy and cute as they please, and still not annoy me.  This particular book was such a delicious confection of Christmas-y elements that there was no way I wouldn't enjoy it!  In fact, I suspect it's a book I'll reread in Christmastimes to come.

By the way, if you're starting to think of books you want to read during the Christmas season, I have a page called Christmas Reads where I link to all my reviews of Christmas books on this blog.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.  I was not required to provide a review of it, positive or otherwise. 

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for dealing with poison and murder.  No cussing or smut or on-page scenes of violence except someone throwing things at a snowman from time to time.

This is the 51st book read from my TBR collection for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023 and my first read and reviewed for #AMonthOfMystery this year.

"Until We All Share Joy" by Heather Wood

I've been wanting to try Heather Wood's books for a while now, and even have three of them on my TBR shelves!  Until We All Share Joy is a novella that takes place at the same time as another of her books, and now that I've met the main family she writes about, I'm looking forward to her other books even more!

Until We All Share Joy begins at Christmastime when a young medical student, Titan Dinsmore, spots a young lady sitting alone at a train station in Chicago.  Night is falling, and he knows a respectable young lady should not be unaccompanied in the city after dark, so he takes it upon himself to chaperone her until she is home again.  Which sounds condescending, but I promise he doesn't behave as if she couldn't care for herself, only that he wants to offer her his assistance should she require it.

The young lady, Nora Gates, was waiting for her father to come home for Christmas.  He didn't show up, so she waits for him again the next night.  And Titan shows up to keep her safe, once again.  This continues until they become acquaintances instead of strangers, then friends instead of acquaintances.  Over the course of the next year, Titan and Nora fall in love (though they stop waiting for trains after Christmas).  I really appreciated how their relationship grew and changed gradually and naturally, and that they both took the time to get to know each others' families.

This book is not so much a romance as a coming-of-age story for Titan as he matures into manhood after feeling he's never taken seriously by his family since he is the youngest.  Taking on responsibility and stepping out into a life of his own helps him to grow and change, and I liked getting to watch that happen.

I was asked to provide a promotional quote for this book and received a free copy from the publisher, but I was not required to review it.  All opinions here are my own true opinions.

Particularly Good Bits:

"You can't control the choices your children make anyway," Titan said.

"That's the problem with people.  They can't simply enjoy something beautiful without thinking they have to possess it themselves."

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: G.  It's a good, godly story with no cussing, smut, innuendos, or violence.

"Jane and the Twelve Days of Christmas" by Stephanie Barron

It's been ten years since I read any of the Jane Austen Mysteries by Stephanie Barron.  And I have only read the first four, which means there are seven books between where I stopped and this one.  But none of that mattered at ALL because I dove merrily and seamlessly into this book and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The only reason I quit reading this series in the first place is that my foolish local library system got rid of them.  Hmph.  I picked up a copy of this at the used book store and saved it to enjoy this month.  And enjoy it, I did!

Jane Austen, her sister Cassandra, and their mother get invited to a Christmas house party at the grand home The Vyne, owned by the wealthy Chute family.  This is especially welcome because they three ladies are spending the Christmas season with Jane's brother James Austen and his family, and his wife Mary is... well, you know Mary (Eliot) Musgrove in Persuasion?  Imagine if she was shrewish as well as petty and whiny, and you have Mary Austen as portrayed in this novel.

Unfortunately, during the festive house party, a messenger arrives with a message of great military and political import (it involves that upstart new country, the United States of America)... and gets murdered.  Jane Austen teams up with a new friend, Raphael West, who turns out to be much more than simply artist Benjamin West's son.  Together, they solve the crime, plus a few more that follow.  The whole book is a galloping good time, and I am now determined to collect up the whole series and finish reading it.

(from my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

The little fever of envy, once caught, is the ruin of all happiness (p. 142)

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for some mild bad language, unwitnessed violence, talk of suicide, and some decorous reflections on adult activities.

This is my 7th book read and reviewed for the Literary Christmas reading challenge this year, and the 64th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.

Top Ten Tuesday: There Has Been an Addition

I didn't get many books for Christmas this year, but that's because I didn't ask for many.  I've been working for several years to cut my massive TBR stacks down to a manageable size, and part of that is being more intentional about what books I acquire.  

Still, I did get six books for Christmas, plus I bought a few more over the past weeks, so here are the "Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection," which is our prompt for Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl this week.

Guy Williams: The Man Behind the Mask by Antoinette Girgenti Lane -- a biography of the actor who played Zorro on the Disney TV show back in the 1950s.  I adore that show, as Williams's portrayal of Zorro is my absolute favorite.  My dad gave me this for Christmas because he also loves that show.

The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others' Eyes by C. S. Lewis -- a collection of essays, articles, letters Lewis wrote pertaining to how rewarding reading can be.  My in-laws gave me this for Christmas -- it's one of the few books I did put on my wish list this year.

Persuasion by Jane Austen -- but not just any edition, an edition that includes handwritten copies of all the letters in the book!  And since this is the book with the finest love letter of all time in it, this is pretty much a must-have version of my favorite Austen novel.  A friend surprised me with this for Christmas.

(From my Instagram)

Srsly Hamlet by Courtney Carbone (and William Shakespeare) -- my beloved Hamlet retold as a series of text message conversations.  It's quirky and funny, and was a gift from a friend who also loves the Melancholy Dane.

The Lost Chronicles by Mark Cotta Vaz -- a companion to one of my favorite TV shows, Lost (2004-2010).  I'm having great fun paging through it.  This was also a gift from a friend.

Come Forth as Gold by Erica Dansereau -- a book that involves a gold mining town AND World War II?  I must read it.  This was a "secret Santa" gift from a member of the Christian Mommy Writers Group.

The Gold in These Hills by Joanne Bischoff -- it's about a mail-order bride and a gold rush and a ghost town.  I just wrote a book with a gold rush ghost town in it.  Obviously, I'm intrigued by this!  I bought it for myself.

A Classic Christmas Story Collection: The Christmas Hirelings and Other Stories from Moncreiff Press -- a wealth of lovely stories from classic authors like Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, O. Henry, Kate Douglas Wiggin, and Washington Irving.  I chiefly bought it because it contains The Christmas Hirelings by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, which I read this year and loved.

Silent Night; Holy Night by Colleen Coble -- two Christmas mystery novellas.  I bought this because I enjoyed All is Calm; All is Bright so much.  I reviewed it here.

All is Calm; All is Bright by Colleen Coble -- two more Christmas mystery novellas.  This was my book club's pick for our December read, and I very much enjoyed it.  My review is here.

Did you get some new books this month?  Do share!

"Catching Christmas" by Terri Blackstock

I liked this book so much more than I expected to!  I picked it up at a library book sale at some point because I read a couple of Blackstock's books a few years ago and liked them.  But then I read some reviews that said the book was disappointing or boring or something, and so I went into it with really low expectations.  That might be why I liked it so much, I suppose.

Finn is a cab driver who answers a call to pick up a little old lady at her house.  He takes her to a doctor's appointment and leaves her in the waiting room with his card so she can call him again when she's done.  And he makes some very grumpy assumptions about the kind of people who would leave this sweet old lady to the care of a cab driver to get to a doctor's appointment.

Callie, the old lady, doesn't call him, so Finn goes back hours later because he's worried about her.  He discovers she's fallen asleep and never been seen by the doctor at all.  Now he's really upset with her family, whoever they may be.

Callie's granddaughter Sydney is a first-year lawyer at a high-powered firm that's just laid off most of its junior associates.  She's hanging onto her job by the skin of her teeth, trying to salvage a horrible case defending a frat boy who is clearly guilty as charged.  She's spending ten or twelve hours a day at work on this case, and using the rest of her time to care for her grandmother the best she can.  Her parents have both passed away, she's Callie's only remaining relative, and she's doing the best she can to juggle work and caring for her grandmother.

Naturally, Finn and Sydney eventually meet up.  Naturally, Callie tries to play matchmaker for them.  It was never a hard-to-predict plot, but it was very sweet and lovely.  But not sugary!  Finn has a biting wit and no-nonsense attitude that keeps the story from feeling saccharine.  

I suppose if you expected this book to be a suspenseful thriller like the other series I read by Blackstock, you would find this cozy and heartwarming story disappointing.  But I liked it a LOT.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for themes about elder abuse, dying, and the court case that involved alcohol and drug abuse.

This is my sixth book read for the Literary Christmas reading challenge and my 62nd for #TheUnreadShelfChallenge2022.

"Silent Night; Holy Night" by Colleen Coble

Because I enjoyed All is Calm; All is Bright so much last month, I thought I would try Colleen Coble's other Christmas novella duology too.  And now I have a conundrum: do I keep this paperback because I really liked one of the stories, or do I put it in the Little Free Library I steward because I didn't like the other story?  Ahhh, the troubles a bookworm faces, eh?

Silent Night is part of the Rock Harbor series set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  I lived in Michigan's Thumb for nine years as a kid and visited the UP several times, so I really loved the setting for this story.  I also enjoyed that it wasn't about two people falling in love, but about a husband-and-wife team of search-and-rescue people who live in a lighthouse.  It's all about a skydiver who dies and turns out to have had ties to a recent kidnapping.  I very much liked this story and would like to read the series at some point.

Holy Night is part of the Aloha Reef series set in Hawaii.  The setting was really fascinating, since I've never been to Hawaii, but I didn't like the characters very well, and you know that is make-or-break for me.  The main character, Kaia, kept refusing to trust her fiance with Extremely Important Information.  Over and over.  And did her fiance decide maybe this was a reason to reevaluate whether or not they should get married?  No, he was all focused on feeling abandoned and emotionally discarded.  Plus, he seemed to mostly love Kaia because she was hawt -- he kept focusing on their upcoming wedding night rather on the way she was not being a particularly sensible or trustworthy person. I would not have finished reading this novella except that I really loved Kaia's sister Eva, a young woman with Down Syndrome who gets kidnapped.  I very much needed to know if she got through this okay, so I kept reading.

So, now I just have to decide if I should keep this because I probably would like to reread Silent Night at some point, or if I should not.  Sigh.  Maybe I will keep it until I get a chance to read more of the Rock Harbor series, and then decide.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for kidnappings, characters in danger, and a some intense kissing and mildly suggestive content.  No on-page smut.

This is my fifth book read for the Literary Christmas reading challenge and my 61st for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022.