Trift Reads for the Holidays: some mini-reviews and ratings
I love to read for the season. Nothing puts me in the mood for a season and a holiday quite like reading about it. I can read and enjoy all the best parts of - in this case - winter and December holidays without my socks getting wet or having to shovel snow and such.
As such, in preparation for December, I’ve started my holiday reading. I thought I’d start off with some books that were wintry in nature but not specifically holiday related. It also felt appropriate to read the Thanksgiving book I had gotten a while back.
(A quick note: with every review, I’ve given my overall rating, a steam rating and a holiday vibes rating, but - as you will see - the three ratings do not influence each other.)
Sent to the small town of Wychcomb St Mary, spy Leo Page teams up with town doctor James Sommers to solve the murder of a local housekeeper.
I’m kind of a mystery snob. There’s pretty specific things I look for a really good mystery to have. This one checks most of my boxes. It’s not a perfect mystery, but good enough. There were a few points where the right conclusion was reached but I don’t feel as though they had enough evidence to really connect those dots. The romance, however, was adorable. Leo and James don’t just develop chemistry and romance, but friendship as well, and I absolutely adore them. I’m also super here for asking for consent for a first kiss and post-coital forehead kisses.
1 out of 5 mugs of holiday cheer tea: the book starts off with a very bleak, colorless description of the town. It does snow at one point, but no one really enjoys the snow. The cold weather only really serves as a method to get Leo to borrow James’ scarf and such. The epilogue finally achieves some modicum of that “it’s cold outside but warm in here with you” atmosphere, but even then. They’re supposed to be celebrating Christmas and it’s not particularly festive.
3 out of five Yule logs ablaze: There’s one sex scene, and while it’s explicit, the actual steamy-ness of it is tempered by very sweet conversations and inner monologuing.
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars. Not necessarily the book you want if you’re looking for strong holiday vibes, but a decent mystery plot, and a wonderful romantic plot.
A Match Made for Thanksgiving by Jackie Lau
Nick Wong goes home for Thanksgiving, to find that his family has invited over for dinner blind dates for him and his siblings - and his brother Greg’s blind date is Lily Tseng, Nick’s most recent one-night stand.
It’s really hard to write a well-paced, well plotted story in 100 pages, but Lau really knocks this one out of the park. Not only are Lily and Nick great characters, but there’s some wonderful side characters. The banter between family members got actual, out loud laughs from me. All over, this is just adorable, funny and charming, with low angst and low drama. My only real criticism is that there’s just a few small things I would have preferred to see handled with a more natural, less rushed progression that a longer book would afford. Not that I want this novella to be a longer book, just that I don’t think those things fit very well in this novella.
0 out of 5 pieces of holiday nanaimo bars: Thanksgiving is not central to the plot, and I really didn’t feel much holiday spirit here. I think this would actually work better in some ways if it weren’t trying to be a holiday story.
5 out of 5 steamy soup dumplings: With this book being as short as it is, it surprises me how many explicit sex scenes Lau managed to squeeze into this book, and still manage to give it a good plot and well drawn characters and everything.
Overall: 5 out of 5 stars. How much I loved this far outshines the few places where the book is a little weak. Next year’s resolution: read everything written by Jackie Lau.
One Fell Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles #3)by Ilona Andrews
Dina offers help to an alien refugee being hunted down, placing the Gertrude Hunt Inn squarely in a hostile enemy’s line of sight.
Obviously, not a Christmas story. But it does happen to take place in the days leading up to Christmas, and there’s some cute holiday scenes. The plot was as wild as ever. (The kind of wild that goes far beyond my ability to rate it on any kind of scale.) And you can’t quite say that there’s a romantic plot line, but I do enjoy Dina and Sean as a couple.
2 of 5 of Orro’s Christmas feasts: Surprisingly festive for a few scenes, but I do dock a holiday cheer point because the book ends before any real Christmas celebrating can be done, even though it ends on Christmas Day and there are preparations for a large Christmas dinner. Does book #4 pick up with a Christmas party? I have no idea.
4 of 5 cups of steamy mint tea: Sean comes down Dina’s chimney, and the sex is like banana peppers - it’s sweet and hot.
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars. I’m enjoying this series. I like the characters, the wacky worldbuilding, the eventual resolutions. This book isn’t my favorite so far, but I enjoyed it well enough.
Ellerie Downing fights to protect her family, her home and everything she loves as her town is beset by odd occurrences that instill fear, suspicion and wrath in her fellow townsfolk.
I was very unimpressed by Craig’s House of Salt and Sorrows, but I believe in second chances so here we are. This is also not a holiday book, but takes place over the course of about a year (little less, 10ish months?). I will give it to Craig and say that she nails the slow-building gothic horror atmosphere. At the same time, I think I have a complete picture for whatever it is she’s going to write next and I don’t need to read it.
3 of 5 holiday honeycakes: For being in a. the book of the four here that I liked the least and b. a gothic horror book, it surprises me that the Christmas scene in here is the one of all these that I felt the most holiday spirit from. But it was a really cute holiday scene that had the attitude of, “We don’t have much, but it’s Christmas so we will make the best of what we do have.” There was a feast (in comparison to all their other meals, anyway), there was a nice family dinner (even if tension was a little high), and dancing and just, generally speaking, celebrating. 3 out of 5 is as high as I’m willing to go for a book not centered on a holiday, but I also give this book an extra cookie for being festive while also building dread and having plot-relevant things happen during festivities.
1 out of 5 beehives a-burning: The chemistry between Ellerie and Whitaker is good, if a little stalker-y, but they do not get down and dirty within the confines of this book.
Overall rating: 2 out of 5 stars. Ellerie is a better protagonist than Annaleigh was, but still pretty reactionary where I wanted her to take control more. And the ending is somewhat gratuitous, but at least it makes sense (sort of).
Next on my list?
- A Demon for Midwinter by K. L. Noone,
- Bitterwood by Rowan Speedwell,
- Backwoods Asylum by Megan Derr,
- A Second Chance Road Trip for Christmas by Jackie Lau.
So what are your favorite reads for this time of year? Anything you’re particularly looking forward to - reading, or holiday spirit wise? Anyone else getting into the season?
Posted Nov 14, 2021, 4:16 PM UTC · edited