Genre: Holiday - Christmas

One Sweet Christmas by Darlene Fredette | Mini Book Review

Posted December 23, 2013 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 4 Comments

One Sweet Christmas by Darlene Fredette
Published by Escape Publishing on December 1, 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Holiday - Christmas, Romance
Pages: 48
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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It’s going to take more than a few pieces of chocolate to fill this Scrooge’s heart with Christmas cheer. Luckily Candice Cane has a whole shop full...

Candice Cane is not proud of the way she acted after her last encounter with Jackson Frost. Sure revenge was fun, but it’s left Jackson standing, angry and looking for answers, on the welcome mat in her chocolate shop. Now he’s after some revenge of his own.

Jackson returned to his small hometown for one reason and one reason only...so he’s not sure how he’s ended up in a Santa suit in the middle of a chocolate shop, at the behest of its beautiful owner, instead of high-tailing it back to the city as fast as he can.

Jackson wants nothing to do with his small town past, but Candice shows him what he didn’t even know he’d been missing. Can a bit of Christmas magic heal old wounds and offer up a future neither saw coming?

With characters named Candice Cane and Jackson Frost, how can you not expect One Sweet Christmas to be super cheesy and eye-roll worthy? Haha. Yes, this book was filled with cheesiness, but luckily I’m in the mood for that during Christmastime!

One Sweet Christmas is filled with yummy Christmas treats! I loved reading about all the food Candi baked. And I loved her little chocolate shop. She holds parties and Santa visits for her customers! How cute and small town does that sound? She also works at this cute little inn. Really, the setting was so much fun and so picturesque.

Jackson and Candi have kind of a crazy past, and when he shows up at her shop with a TON of questions for her she shoves him in a Santa suit and lets the children loose. She is super mad and the frosty Jackson Frost, but he is too cute with those kids for her to resist. Jackson is not too happy to be back in his small home town, but he is so smitten with Candi that he sticks around and ends up learning a lot about himself. Of course, there’s romance and mending hearts.

This is the kind of story you read for the smiles and the simple messages, not the characters or the little details. Candi and Jackson are not very noteworthy, and this story has been done before in some way. But that doesn’t matter! All bets are off at Christmas, and if you’re looking for a spoonful of sugar and some Christmas cheer, then definitely give this cute little book a shot!

Cross Country Christmas by Tiffany King | Mini Book Review

Posted December 19, 2013 by Jana in Book Review, New Adult / 2 Comments

Cross Country Christmas by Tiffany King
Published by AT Publishing LLC on November 1, 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Holiday - Christmas, Romance
Pages: 162
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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With the holiday season upon her, Jamie Foster is once again stressed about making her yearly visit back home to Woodfalls, still single. Fate intervenes in the form of Grant Johnson, a boy she grew up with, who catches the same flight while returning home from a business trip.

When a malfunction sends their plane crashing down on the runway upon takeoff, Jamie and Grant decide to rent a car and make the nine-hundred-mile drive home together. Ironically for them, anything that can go wrong does as they face one hysterical hurdle after another.

Christmas may finally bring Jamie the gift of love she has always wanted if she and Grant can manage to overcome a few obstacles along the way. Ho-ho-ho!

I really love a good road trip story, so when I discovered that this is both a Christmas book and a road trip book, I got very excited! I also love serendipitous moments in romance novels, when two characters end up in just the right place at the right time. This is exactly what happens to Jamie and Grant, when they happen upon each other in the airport and miraculously end up sitting next to each other on their flight home for Christmas. After years apart, they revert right back to their twitterpated high school selves.

Jamie is this quirky accident-prone girl who has always had a thing for Grant. Of course, Grant has a thing for her as well and has no idea how to show it to her. As she falls all over the place and sticks her foot in her mouth, he teases her like a schoolboy. It was refreshing to see a couple that don’t quite have it all together. They seemed very real to me. I enjoyed their conversations as they sat cooped up in an extremely tiny car, driving the 900 miles home after their plane crashed on the runway. Bad luck followed them everywhere they went, which I feel brought out the best in them both.

I loved the festive mood this book created! The scenery, the people they meet, and the things they learn… plus the sweet romance just made me smile. I definitely recommend you grab yourself a copy of Cross Country Christmas. It’s a quick, sweet read with a little steam and a lot of heart.

Some Kind of Wonderful by Beth Ciotta | Mini Book Review

Posted December 14, 2013 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 7 Comments

Some Kind of Wonderful by Beth Ciotta
Series: Cupcake Lovers #3.5
Published by St Martin's Press on October 22, 2013
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Holiday - Christmas, Romance
Pages: 83
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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Growing up in Sugar Creek, Maya Templeton and Zachary Cole were best friends. After high school, each went out into the world in search of adventure. Maya moved to Florida to explore her passion for baking and pastry-making, eventually establishing her own business: Cupcakes & Dreamscapes. Zach joined the military and became a Marine Scout Sniper. Now, after years apart, they’re both going home for the holidays. They don’t seem to have much in common anymore. In fact, Zach seems to have the hots for Maya’s business partner. But when the two get stranded together during a blizzard, they are forced to reexamine their connection. Are Maya and Zach better off “just friends”—just as they were when they were young? Or could it be that true love was there all along?

I had high hopes for Some Kind of Wonderful. I always love stories where two childhood best friends come together and discover there’s a lot more than friendship hiding there. I just wish I had been given the opportunity to get to know these two characters better. Both of them fell flat for me. I never learned much about Zach’s time in the military and I did not hear much about Maya’s pastry shop. I felt like a lot of time was spent on the confusion they felt regarding their feelings for each other. Now, I realized partway through that this is book 3.5 in a series. It could be I would have known the characters better, at least Maya anyway.

The pacing was very fast. Conflicts got resolved too quickly, the romance happened too quickly, and things just seemed very unrealistic. I’ve come to expect this from novellas, but I guess I was hoping this one would be different. I do love when characters are forced together by some exterior force. In this case, a ghost blizzard snuck up on them and left them stranded in a secluded cabin. This gave them the opportunity to talk. Their conversations were not incredibly noteworthy, though. And I really did not like ghost aspect. It kind of cheapened and cheese-ified the story for me. Honestly, I would probably pass on this one if I could do things over. I’ve read better Christmas romances.

Mistletoe in Manhattan by Talli Roland | Mini Book Review

Posted December 8, 2013 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 2 Comments

Mistletoe in Manhattan by Talli Roland
Published by Notting Hill Press on November 3, 2012
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Holiday - Christmas
Pages: 60
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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As Little Missington's first Christmas baby in fifty years and the daughter of 'Christmas When You Like It' party-planners, Holly West has been surrounded by the holiday spirit since birth. Trouble is, she's not exactly filled with festive cheer. In fact, Holly can't wait to ditch the tinsel and Santa suits for champagne and celebs, and become a party-planner to the stars.

When British film star Dean Layton hires her parents' company to throw his holiday bash in Manhattan, Holly jumps at the chance to help, confident she can handle a little Christmas in exchange for access to Dean's exclusive world.

But New York and Dean's over-the-top demands are more than Holly bargained for. Can Holly deck the halls and make it a party to be proud of, or will this Christmas be one she'll never forget . . . even if she wants to?

Holly works for her parents’ year-round Christmas event service. Naturally, she is pretty tired of the holiday. I would be too if I were immersed in it all year long! When she receives a call from the office of a British celebrity who has moved to New York City, she knows this is her big break. She wants to get out of the small family company and make it big on her own. She jumps at the chance to go to New York and plan a huge British Christmas party.

When she gets to New York, she begins to realize what celebrities are really like. She is being demanded to deliver extravagant things at the very last minute. She has to work with a very snooty assistant. She begins to lose sight of her family and what is really important. Enter, Alex. He is the bartender at the hotel and helps her plan the party in a strange city, and pretty much saves her butt. He also provides her with experiences that make her realize her current life is pretty good on its own.

Mistletoe in Manhattan is a very quick, sweet Christmas read. I felt like there were SO many details, that the book would have been stronger if it were longer. The romance was a very tiny part of the story, which was disappointing. I did like the underlying message and the dose of Christmas in New York City, though. Definitely read this one if you need a quick pick-me-up, and wish you were celebrating Christmas in NYC like I do!

Decked with Holly by Marni Bates (Book Review)

Posted December 24, 2012 by Jana in Book Review, Young Adult Fiction / 1 Comment

Decked with Holly by Marni Bates
Published by K-Teen on September 25, 2012
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Holiday - Christmas
Pages: 244
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Taking a Christmas cruise with her two cousins from hell isn't Holly's idea of a good time. And when seasickness forces her into an open suite, she's pepper-sprayed by a gorgeous guy called Nick. But when Holly makes her exit, she's greeted by a horde of screaming teenage fans. Because Nick happens to be Dominic Wyatt, drummer for one of the hottest bands in America. Suddenly rumors are swirling and Holly's face is plastered all over the Internet. The band can't risk a scandal destroying their family-friendly image, so Dominic convinces Holly to be his fake girlfriend - just for two weeks. How bad could it be to be "fauxmantically" involved with a cute rock star? She's about to find out...

As soon as I read the synopsis of Decked with Holly, I could hear it screaming sweet Christmas nothings at me. Alexa’s review, however, is what clinched the deal for me. I knew I had to have this book, because it just sounds so adorable! And I have a big thing for books set on cruise ships… and cute Christmas stories… so this book won in two areas of my bookish heart. It was just as adorable and laugh-out-loud funny as I had hoped. As always, my main points are bolded. :)

1. Holly is a girl after my own heart: quirky, artsy, witty, funny, a little eccentric, and always in the shadow of her friends and glamorous family members. She’s so down to earth and average. I loved watching her get thrown into this awkward fake romance with a sexy boy she’s been crushing on from afar for quite some time.

2. This book made me remember my boy band crush days as a teen. I can’t tell you how many times I sat on my bed, listening to N’Sync or Backstreet Boys on repeat, pretending their love songs were about me. I’m not sure what would have happened to me if I’d had to play starlet and be one of their girlfriends for a couple weeks.

3. Nick is the typical boy band persona, and I loved reading about him and his musings and silly thoughts. And I loved how he softened as he got to know Holly more.

4. I love the word “fauxmance”. That’s just one of the hilarious things that was said in this book. Holly and Nick are so quirky and unique in their own way, and they had some of the funniest spats and arguments.

5. I’ve been on several cruises to the Mexican Riviera, so it was really fun for me reading a book that took place on one. I could picture Cabo and Puerto Vallarta (although cruise ships don’t go there anymore, because it’s too dangerous.).

6. Decked with Holly is kind of a conglomeration of Cinderella and Pretty Woman. I loved it. We’ve got this average, plain Jane who gets scooped up into the high rolling life, if you will. She gets a makeover, and she gets treated like a princess. She gets to stay in a suite, have spa days and scuba lessons, and wear expensive make up and cocktail dresses. This, combined with the sweet romance, made me really fall in love with the book.

7. I loved the author’s writing style. Here are some of my favorite quotes.

– “I closed my eyes and said, ‘It’s ok, Holly. You aren’t moving at sea. Oh, no, you are actually lying still on something very stable… like a mountain. That’s right, an enormous mountain with no water anywhere nearby.'”

– “Well, crap. I had probably just pepper sprayed my biggest fan.”

– “I hate the ocean. Someone should drain it.”

– “Apparently, the very mention of shopping was bringing back all sorts of bad memories, like he was having post-traumatic stress disorder from selecting mascara.”

– “I had nearly bailed several times on yoga. I’m sorry, but balancing on one foot isn’t exactly easy when you happen to be on a moving ship. I have no idea how everyone else managed what was absolutely not beginning yoga. It should have been called an advanced course on the art of Twister instead.”

Overall, Decked with Holly is darling, and just what I needed. There was not a huge emphasis on Christmas, so you could actually read it any time during the year. Maybe even on a cruise! It was a light, adorable little romance that I really, really loved.