Advent Reads Day 23: The Christmas Sisters by Sarah Morgan

  Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Synopsis: "In the snowy Highlands of Scotland, Suzanne McBride is dreaming of the perfect cozy Christmas. Her three adopted daughters are coming home for the holidays and she can’t wait to see them. But tensions are running high…

Workaholic Hannah knows she can’t avoid spending the holidays with her family two years in a row. But it’s not the weight of their expectations that’s panicking her—it’s the life-changing secret she’s hiding. Stay-at-home mom Beth is having a personal crisis. All she wants for Christmas is time to decide if she’s ready to return to work—seeing everyone was supposed to help her stress levels, not increase them! Posy isn’t sure she’s living her best life, but with her parents depending on her, making a change seems risky. But not as risky as falling for gorgeous new neighbor Luke…

As Suzanne’s dreams of the perfect McBride Christmas unravel, she must rely on the magic of the season to bring her daughters together. But will this new togetherness teach the sisters that their close-knit bond is strong enough to withstand anything—including a family Christmas?"

My Review: I have been eyeing this book for a while and finally got a chance to pick it up this year.  It was a slower and longer read than I usually pick for the holiday season but I really wanted a lot more family driven stories as opposed to the light fluffy romances I usually reach for.  This one fit that bill and was completely worth the time to read.  Each of the characters was so unique and had a clear voice in the story. It was quite an emotional journey as they came together and discovered things about themselves, each other and their own history and family. While many of the topics are a bit heavy, there is still plenty of light moments and even laugh out loud moments to keep it from getting too dark. The ending was so great as we got to watch the sisters come together and support each other in new ways.

My Rating: This was definitely a longer, slower read but it was very addicting and had me reaching for it again and again to find out what happens next.  I give this one a rating of Four Paws!

Advent Reads Day 22: The White Christmas Inn by Colleen Wright

 Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Synopsis: "A New England inn seems like the picture-perfect place to spend the holidays. But when a snowstorm shuts the roads and keeps them all inside, the guests find themselves worrying that this Christmas may not be exactly what they dreamed of.

Molly just needs to keep her head down and finish her latest book, but her writer’s block is crippling. The arrival of Marcus, a handsome widower with two young girls, is exactly the distraction she doesn't need.

Hannah was hoping for a picturesque winter wedding, but her plans come crashing down when her fiancé calls everything off. She reconnects with her childhood friend, Luke, when he comes to check on his grandmother before the storm.

Jeanne and Tim don't know how they're going to keep the inn open another year—or how to bridge the distance between them in their marriage. With a flurry of unexpected guests, they'll have to work together to fix all the problems that crop up. But will it be enough to rekindle their relationship?

As the characters’ stories intertwine, they start to find hope where they thought it had been lost. With faith, and a little bit of Christmas magic, the inn—and its inhabitants—might just make it through the holidays after all."

My Review:  This is definitely that warm, cozy, feel good book that I was looking for this season. I loved the setting of a small inn filled with people avoiding a storm. We had characters from all walks of life and stages of life. Romance is a big feature in this story but I love how it featured relationships in so many stages; fresh and relatively new, a broken relationship, a tested more established relationship, relationships after a loss and budding new relationships. We also get some great family relationships and elements. It was just an all around sweet, making things work when times are tough and the holidays are upon us. 

My Rating: I really enjoyed this one, it was relatively short and a lot of familiar elements but it was done in a way that felt like a new take on things. I got all the warm cozies I wanted with it. I give it a rating of Four Paws.

Advent Reads Day 21: The BIG Christmas Bake by Fiona Barker & Illustrated by Pippa Curnick

  Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Read for: Requested Review/Netgalley

Synopsis: "The Big Christmas Bake is a funny, lively romp through the twelve days of Christmas, taking the elements of the popular carol, and weaving them cleverly into the ingredients for a Twelfth Night Cake.

Starting with the partridge and its gift of dried fruit, this rhyming story includes all of the familiar characters from the song as they all contribute to the baking of the magnificent Twelfth Night cake.

A trio of french hens bring baking powder

Six geese bring eggs, and lots of feathers too

Ten lords help carry the cake into the oven ready to bake

At the end of the story, there is a recipe included to bake your own cake at home, giving this book the potential to be a favorite Christmas story as well as a resource to be used every year in introducing a twelfth-night cake tradition to a family.

Characterfully illustrated by Pippa Curnick The Big Christmas Bake is a beautiful, lyrical, and gently humourous Christmas story for the whole family to enjoy. "

My Review: This was such a fun book, and would be a blast to read with some littles.  I had no idea about the Twelfth Night Cake tradition so it was also fun to learn a little about it. It is told with some great rhymes and a bit of a play on the Twelve Days of Christmas song, it will have those young and old giggling. With the added illustrations, you will find this might become a favorite holiday season re-read. Keep the fun going after Christmas with a 12 days celebration with a recipe to make your own Twelfth Night Cake and start a new tradition.

My Rating: This is definitely a fun book to keep the holiday going and introduce some new (or old) traditions. The illustrations and the rhyme will have the littles wanting more.  I give this one a rating of Four Paws!

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley, the above is my honest review and opinion.

The BIG Christmas Bake is out now so you can pick up your own copy in print or digital format from Barnes & Noble, Amazon or your local bookstore or library in time to start your own 12 Days celebration!

Advent Reads Day 20: Oh. What. Fun by Chandler Baker

   Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Synopsis: "Everyone is home for the holidays, clamoring for all the Christmas cheer only their mother can whip up. They can already smell the chestnuts roasting—or is that Mom’s hair on fire? From a New York Times bestselling author comes a laugh-out-loud short story for any mom who’d rather wreck the halls.

Tyler, Channing, and Sammy Clauster have descended on their childhood home, with significant others and four-year-old twins in tow, for another good old-fashioned Christmas. Overwhelming holiday magic, as always, comes courtesy of their mom, Claire. They know she’s thrilled to cook, wrap gifts, decorate, accommodate, play games, overprepare every Christmas Eve Eve Eve tradition, and still let Dad be known as the Fun One. It’s her thing, right? Maybe the family should have paid closer attention. Because this year, something is a little off-key—and it’s not just the carols."

My Review: I was looking for a short, non-romance holiday book and stumbled on this one.  It was definitely a bit quirky and no romance was involved. It was funny but in an almost 'I get it' sort of way.  The way us moms work so hard to make holidays just right, with lots of traditions and keeping everyone happy, working ourselves to the bone, but for what? For no one to recognize all the effort?! Sometimes you just have to loose it bit for everyone to open their eyes and this book captures that in a comical way. 

My Rating: This was short, fun and completely different from other holiday books, and it hit just right when in the midst of planning and prepping to host the family for Christmas.  I give it a rating of Three Paws.

Advent Reads Day 19: The Girl with the Pirate Smile by Joseph Truitt

   Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Synopsis: "Break into an old cookie factory with a mysterious new friend? Rob the townspeople to supply the cookie ingredients? Will the law catch up with Emma and Penelope before they get the cookies baked for Christmas?

Rediscover your inner child in this magical Christmas mystery as you follow the lonely Emma Harper through the enchanting town of Pottsville during the height of Christmas merriment. When Emma’s mysterious new friend, Penelope, convinces her to break into the old cookie factory, her life is instantly filled with adventure and purpose. Emma soon becomes captive to Penelope’s spunky personality, but when strange, enchanting things happen around Penelope, Emma suddenly begins to question the reality of her new friend.

Fall in love with Emma and Penelope in this heartwarming Christmas tale of friendship, adventure, and love for Christmas cookies."

My Review: I was looking for a good Christmas book for Munchkin and stumbled across this series so decided to give it a try first.  This was quite the adventure story.  It is a bit of a chosen one trope but you can't help but route for Emma and she struggles with bullies, school, family financial difficulties and more. As an adult reading it, I definitely saw a couple of the twists ahead of time but there are still a lot of surprises throughout the story. Definitely a fun one for any kid to read and see the underdog kid saving the day. I will definitely be continuing with this series.

My Rating: This was a fun Middle Grade book to read during the holiday season. Even though the main character is a girl, it is such an adventure I think it is just as suited to young boy readers as well. I give this one a rating of Four Paws

Advent Reads Day 18: The Season of Us by Holly Chamberlin

  Welcome to Advent Reads!

This is an event I have had on my blog for several years running now.  Each evening I feature a different holiday themed book. Think of it as your Book Advent Calendar! I post a variety of holiday books including romance, children's, middle-grade, mystery, paranormal, and I try to find some that are other holiday celebrations than Christmas too. I hope you will stop by each evening to see what new book I have for you!

Synopsis: "Against the irresistible backdrop of Christmas in New England, bestselling author Holly Chamberlin creates a heartfelt and memorable novel—a story of reunited family, new beginnings, and unconditional love—the best gift of all.

To outsiders, Appleville, New Hampshire, is a storybook small town complete with a little white church and a gazebo on the village green. To Gincy Gannon Luongo, it was a place to escape from, as quickly and as permanently as she could. Since she moved away twenty years ago, Appleville has been her hometown in name only. But at her brother Tommy’s urging, Gincy is coming back to visit their recently widowed mother in the weeks leading up to Christmas—and she’s bringing her teenage daughter, Tamsin, with her.

Ellen Gannon, once feisty and strong-willed, is mired in depression six months after losing her husband. Tommy isn’t doing much better. Gincy starts restoring order to the household in her usual practical way, but the real issues run much deeper than an empty fridge or an unpaid bill. Imagined slights and lingering resentments have created chasms between them all.

With each passing day, Gincy realizes she has seriously undervalued her mother and underestimated her brother. Only now, with the support of her husband, daughter, and best friends, is she starting to see how much she may have missed. For beyond the surface of every family and every picturesque town is something more complicated but infinitely more rewarding—a tapestry of those small acts of acceptance, love, and loyalty that could transform this Christmas into the best Gincy’s ever known."

My Review: I have had this book on my Christmas TBR for a few years and finally got around to picking it up this year, and it was a perfect time to read it.  I really appreciated the fact that this book is not a romance, instead it focuses on the relationships within a family. I loved the eye-opening look at how we see relationships between siblings or parents as a kid and then again as adults. This was definitely a journey as Gincy gets to know who her mom and brother really are and who they have become over the years. It was a great book to read during the holiday season and it definitely got me thinking more about how my view of family may not be entirely accurate.

My Rating: This was an emotional book with lots of sentimental moments, sad moments, frustrating moments, and moments a love. It will also make you take a look at those relationships in your own life and maybe reaching out.  I give this on a rating of Three Paws and a Stump Wag.