Book Review: The Christmas Wedding by Dilly Court

The village of Little Creek, the long winter of 1867 
 
The first flakes of snow are falling when Daisy Marshall, secretly engaged to her master’s son, finds herself jilted at the altar. 
 
Heartbroken, Daisy flees to the small village of Little Creek, nestled on the coast of Essex. There she is warmly welcomed – but the village is poverty-stricken, suffering under a cruel Lord of the manor. And when cholera hits, the villagers are truly in dire straits. 
 
Determined to help, Daisy makes new friends in earnest doctor Nicholas and dashing smuggler Jay – but also dangerous new enemies, who threaten to destroy everything she’s built. Can Daisy save the village and find happiness in time for Christmas?

Likely to be last “Christmas book” for the 2022/2023 season.

Within the 1st chapter, Daisy has lost her secret fiancé, lost her job as a governess, and lost the home she knew when her Uncle retires and everyone moves into the country

Her brother, Toby, is a newly qualified doctor, and soon realises that the village everyone has moved to, will not give him the training or living he requires, so soon moves back to London.

Nick Neville is also a newly qualified doctor, but who has his family home in Little Creek. The village is desperate for a doctor and Nick stays as long as he can, but enventually returns to London to earn money. The local squire owns much of the land and is making life difficult for many, including Neville.

Many of the tenants are living in squalor and destitution, including Mary (who is the mother of Jay, Linette, Dove and Jack, all of who play a reasonble part in the book, although Jack does disppear about half way throught)

Mary goes to London with a plan to see her brother, and get some form of job and lodgings. She becomes a Probationary Nurse, almost by accident and ends up sharing a room with another probationer.

The rest of the book deals with Daisy’s love life, supporting Nick Neville and the village through a bout of Cholera etc. The title should give an indication of what happens and when, but the question is “who is the groom?”

I have a few problems with the narrative:

1) Characters are dropped (never to be heard about again) as soon as they stop being useful to the story. This includes Jack, the London landlady, the cat (his poor attitude was narrated in depth, until he disappeared); Minnie (the roommate) and Aggie (the servant); The training sisters in the hospital etc

2) Timeline narrative. At one point Jay promised he would get Daisy to “little Creek” the following day, yet they docked 4 days later. I may well have missed something here, but it did grate on me a little.

Despite the narrative issues that I have, overall I found is a nice, lightish book for the Christmas/New Year period

Book Review: Married by Christmas by Scarlett Bailey

All she wants is a perfect Christmas Eve wedding...

It’s been on Anna’s wish-list since she was a little girl, dreaming of a far happier family life than she’d ever experienced.

But now – only two weeks before her big day – her perfect husband-to-be drops a bombshell…

Only nothing’s going to stop Anna’s plans – not even the pesky inconvenience of discovering her groom already has a wife!

My last book of 2022, and naturally, it’s Christmas related.

Anna, who never knew her father and who lost her mother when she was 9 and was taken on by those she classes as “family” ever since. As a result of such a disorganised childhood (her mother was also an alcoholic and druggie), Anna could well be classed as “High maintenance” or “OCD” where she find the need to contrl everything.

Tom proposes to Anna, who has her heart set on a Christmas Eve Wedding. Everything is organised, but there’s one thing that Anna could never have predicted – her fiancée and the fact he has apparently “forgotten” about getting married to an exotic dancer 8 years previously

In the first of multiple “out of character” decisions, Anna is on the next flight to the US to find Charisma (to get the divorce cleaned up). Anna is annoyed that Tom has left it this late, and it is her (not Tom) on the plane to sort this out

On the flight to JFK (referred to later as JKF, boo!). Anna finds herself sitting beside Miles who had a one night date with Anna several years previously.

The majority of the book is Anna and Miles in New York after Thanksgiving where Anna is doing one after another out of character things. They do find Charisma (now known as the actress Erica) and the divorce is progressed.

Anna would have been a nightmare had her initial behaviour continued, so thankfully she was relaxed for the majority of the book. Was a little bit disappointed that she was elsewhere whilst her BFF was getting married – I would have thought she would have bent over backwards in an attempt to be there (although this might be an example of how much he’s changed – I dont know).

In Short: Decent End of the year Book, with suitably complex main female leads (the men could be deeper BUT perhaps that’s not the point!), reasonable Romance levels

Book Review: Christmas at Holiday House by RaeAnne Thayne

In the town of Silver Bells, there’s always a feeling of Christmas in the air… Let love—and RaeAnne Thayne—melt your heart this holiday season!

This New Year will bring widowed nurse Abigail Powell a fresh start in a different city. Excited about the chance to create an unforgettable Christmas for her young son in picturesque Silver Bells, Colorado, Abby has been hired to take care of her dear friend’s recuperating grandmother. But sprightly senior Winnie insists she doesn’t need looking after. What she does need is help decorating her historic mansion, Holiday House, for a seasonal town fundraiser. Abby warms to the festive task, but she’ll have to contend with her own personal Grinch: Winnie’s prickly grandson, Ethan Lancaster.

Ethan Lancaster is good at a lot of things. Relationships surely aren’t one of them. His ex-fiancée convinced Ethan he was incapable of love, and he believes her…up until the moment he impulsively kisses Abby. What is it about this vibrant woman and her sweet son that knocks his world off-kilter? He knows they’re leaving town after Christmas. He just didn’t expect they’d be taking a little of his heart with them. But as he and Abby work together on the magical Holiday House through the record cold weather, visions of a different future dance in his head…one filled with warmth, love and a new beginning for them both.

Received as one of my books from “a Box Of Stories” subscription, and since it was Christmas related, I thought I’d read and review it ahead of the Christmas season

Lucy, working abroad, asks her college friend Abby to travel to Silver Bells just before Thanksgiving, in order to look after Lucy’s grandmother Winnie, who has broken her wrist following a fall.

Abby has a 5 year old son Christopher, which she had with her husband who died following a car crash 2 years previously. Abby is a nurse and preparing to move across Texas in order to start a new job in the New Year. Going to Silver Bells for 6 weeks allows her a winter break before hand, so everything works out for the best.

Abby drives multiple hours with her son and cat (what happened to the cat? It’s never mentioned beyond the 1st few chapters). Abby finds the Holiday House to be a large Victorian style house, covered in the standard Colerado winter snow.

She finds that Winnie is old, and has some strained/broken bones, and apart from needing some pain killers, she was otherwise fine.

Lucy’s brother Ethan wants Winnie to go into a home. Winnie doesnt want to. In fact she still wants to open up the house to visitors for guided tours (hence the “Christmas at Holiday Home” title)

As a side thread, Lucy is facing a personal challenge about her relationship with Luiz potentially going from a Friendship to romantic. Lucy and Ethan have both been damaged by the relationsip between their parents, their divorce etc.

The next few weeks cover Thanksgiving, prepping for the open house, and then Christmas. It includes skiing, shopping, as well as decorating the house for Christmas.

As with other ABOS books, this book is good enough to have been published, but not one of those books to set the world on fire – sorry. It’s a decent Christmas related romance novel with few (if any) extras to distinguish it from some very similar stories

Book Review: Christmas at Liberty’s by Fiona Ford

September, 1941: Mary arrives in war-torn London nursing a broken heart and a painful secret.

When she is offered her dream post as an assistant in the fabric department at Liberty store, she knows this is the fresh start she needs. Amid the store’s vibrant prints and sumptuous interiors, Mary finds a new family who can help her to heal.

But not everyone will give Mary such a warm welcome, and the trauma of her past will soon catch up with her.

As Mary and the Liberty Girls endure the heartache and uncertainty of war, it will take a steady heart to keep the magic of Christmas alive.

This is one of the books I got from A Box Of Stories, whose mission is to prevent books from heading to the recycling bin. By definition, any book was good enough to be published, but not strong enough to be a best seller.

I have a large pile of Christmas themed books from various sources (not just a Box of Stories), so I decided to start reading Christmas books early so that I had some new content to share (I had to start somewhere in reducing the TBR too!).

Onto the story: Apart from the occasional editorial error (e.g. referring to a wife as a sister), this is an average, reasonable version of a basic trope. e.g. “Someone from a privileged background, makes friends through slumming it and working hard, whilst keeping a significant secret from everyone”. It’s not a *bad* book, but it’s not enough to get on the bestseller list/feature table.

The story covers Births, marriages, deaths, uncertainties during WWII, Lashing of milky tea (eh? 1941 rationing meant that tea and milk was freely available – who knew?!). The idea that fabric was already rationed in 1941 was reasonable.

It’s late 1941 London and Mary has left the ATS under a dark cloud and is looking for a job and lodging. She finally gets a job in Liberty’s fabric department. Here she meets friends and enemies, faces the hardships from now being a year of war (rationing of food, fabric, etc). People become sick, others have babies, husbands may be dead, boyfriends get called up etc.

Apparently this is #1 in a trilogy. If I’m honest, I’m not in a rush to buy the others but I wont turn the others if they turn up.

 

Book Review: The Perfect Christmas by Debbie Macomber

 

WHAT WOULD MAKE YOUR CHRISTMAS PERFECT?

For Cassie Beaumont, it’s meeting her perfect match. Cassie, at thirty-three, wants a husband and kids, and so far, nothing’s worked. Not blind dates, not the Internet and certainly not leaving love to chance.

What’s left? A professional matchmaker. He’s Simon Dodson, and he’s very choosy about the clients he takes on. Cassie finds Simon a difficult, acerbic know-it-all, and she’s astonished when he accepts her as a client.

Claiming he has her perfect mate in mind, Simon assigns her three tasks to complete before she meets him. Three tasks that are all about Christmas: being a charity bell ringer, dressing up as Santa’s elf at a children’s party and preparing a traditional turkey dinner for her neighbors (whom she happens to dislike). Despite a number of comical mishaps, Cassie does it all — and she’s finally ready to meet her match.

But just like the perfect Christmas gift, he turns out to be a wonderful surprise!

Book Review: A Christmas Flower by Bryan Mooney

Miracles are like snowflakes—no two are alike, but each one is precious and beautiful. This Christmas, Dr. Beth Harding could use a few miracles. The hospital she runs in River Dale, New Hampshire, is being shut down, unless she can convince the Scrooge-like board to save it. At least her closest friend, firefighter Logan Mitchell, is home for the holidays to offer a broad shoulder to lean on.

In California, Logan is a smoke jumper, but jumping into a romance with his best friend scares him more than any forest fire. After losing his parents at sixteen, Logan was taken in by Beth’s family. As kids, they were like brother and sister. Now they’re grown up, and sparks keep flying between them. If only Beth wasn’t already engaged. Maybe with a Christmas miracle or two, Beth can keep those hospital doors open—and two dear friends can finally allow their one true love to blossom.

From Lake Union Publishing via Netgalley. Some Spoilers below.

On some level, Logan has always been in love with Beth, but it’s only since her mother died earlier in the year that he’s begun to realise his true feelings. He works out as a fire jumper in California and it gives him the best thrill in his life. When he hears that his old boss has been injured in a blaze, and with the California fire season over, he returns home to check on things. With budget cuts, the local fire brigade is short on staff, so Logan is persuaded to take on some cover. The budget cuts also mean that the accountants plan to close the hospital that Beth’s mother set up – and to do it by New Year.

Book Review: Merry and Bright by Debbie Macomber

 

 

Merry Smith is pretty busy these days. She’s taking care of her family, baking cookies, decorating for the holidays, and hoping to stay out of the crosshairs of her stressed and by-the-book boss at the consulting firm where she temps. Her own social life is the last thing she has in mind, much less a man. Without her knowledge, Merry’s well-meaning mom and brother create an online dating profile for her—minus her photo—and the matches start rolling in. Initially, Merry is incredulous, but she reluctantly decides to give it a whirl.

Soon Merry finds herself chatting with a charming stranger, a man with similar interests and an unmistakably kind soul. Their online exchanges become the brightest part of her day. But meeting face-to-face is altogether different, and her special friend is the last person Merry expects—or desires. Still, sometimes hearts can see what our eyes cannot. In this satisfying seasonal tale, unanticipated love is only a click away.

Ebook from Netgalley in exchange for a review.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Debbie Macomber (and the day after I finished this one, I got the offer of another one from a friend in London! yay!).

Book Review: Christmas at the Rekindle Inn by Lori Waters

 

Mary Walker has a habit of giving in when it comes to her mother, but this time her mom went too far. At first glance, the gift seems innocent. Seven days at a lovely Vermont inn in mid-December is Mary’s idea of the perfect Christmas present—that is until she discovers her traveling companion’s identity.

The Rekindle Inn is the last place J.T. Walker wants to spend his Christmas vacation, much less in the company with the woman who’d recently ripped his heart to shreds. A challenge of wills, and the need to show Mary he no longer cares, has him on the plane to Santaville faster than the time it takes to unwrap a candy cane.

The Rekindle Inn specializes in mending relationships, but when the Walkers check in, it will take more than a little Christmas magic to bring these two broken hearts back together. More like a Christmas miracle.

Picked up from Netgalley in exchange for a review, this almost didn’t make it into the Christmas Reading pile, until I was checking my dashboard on the site for another book, and – eeep! It was there ready to read, and my chance of a themed romance was rapidly running out the door!

It’s August so it must be Christmas

So, it’s mid August and therefore the middle of summer (at least here in the northern hemisphere). That means there are two states of mind that co-exist in the bloggersphere: First, there’s a general apathy going around and it’s not just with the book bloggers. I follow several bloggers in other niches, more than one of whom has voiced a dissatisfaction with blogging in general and their niche in particular. Specifically it is the ones that have been doing blogging for a number of years: there is a loss of impetus, and a loss of interest about what’s on offer/new/the spin they can put on things. It’s certainly something I’ve been feeling, as I believe it’s one of the reasons behind my recent lack of reading and reviewing (as mentioned in my reading update earlier in the week).

The second, perhaps opposing state of mind is: it’s 4.5 months to Christmas. This affects bloggers in different ways, depending on the niche. For crafters, there’s a case for “Christmas in July” which is when they start creating stuff ahead of the holiday period (and for the Yanks, it really means “Thanksgiving in July”). So: cue knitting, stitching, card making, scrapbooking and general craftiness in the summer months in readiness for the winter holiday season. (The item opposite is an example of the crafty things from Sandy’s Crafty Creations). The TV shows on the relevant channels start going haywire with offers for the winter months.    Thankfully the Festival Of Quilts up at the NEC at the beginning of August wasn’t primed for Christmas themes, but it could have been!  I haven’t done any cross stitch for months, and generally don’t make anything to give away. I am currently working on a quilt top, using some old fabric I picked up in the early 1990s (does anyone remember the pink themed Laura Ashley quilt fabric?!).

Book Review: Finding Christmas by Jeannie Moon

Small town Holly Point wasn’t big enough to hold the dreams of golden girl Maggie Benson. So when she left at eighteen, she flew right through college and into the adrenaline-pumping life of a navy fighter pilot. But without warning, a devastating crash destroys the career she loves and sends her back to her overly protective family to heal. Maggie can’t imagine how she can reconnect with the woman she was until the hot local high school basketball coach steps up to show her the way.

Former NBA star Will Fitzgerald knows how an injury can derail more than a career. Still, he’s happy with his life as a teacher and coach at Holly Point High School, until his quiet life is upended by the beautiful, brilliant, and hurting Maggie. Blindsided by the intense attraction, Will wonders if pursuing the woman of his dreams will answer the question of what’s been missing in his life.

Can Maggie trust enough again to let Will past her wounds, inside and out, so that they can both find the Christmas magic they’ve been searching for?

From Tule Publishing via Netgalley in exchange for a review. This book is one in a series of book set in/around New York in the Christmas period (many of which I have reviewed before This Christmas by Jeannie Moon, Goodness and Light by Patty Blount and A Light in the Window by Jolyse Barnett.)

Maggie returns home for the first time in several years, and two years after a Plane crash left her with skin burns over much of her body and having had part of one of her legs amputated.  She has a prosthetic leg which allows her to get around, but it doesn’t make things any easier as she is still coming to terms with not knowing her place in life anymore….she can no longer be a pilot, so where can she go now?

Will is a coach at the local school where Maggie comes in contact with him. He previously was a talented basketball player, until an accident broke his back and derailed his own plans for the future. They begin seeing each other….don’t know if they would actually call it dating….and Will, who is further along in finding his role in life, is there to pick up the pieces when Maggie is confronted with various things in her life and has to decide where to go next.

There is a light smattering in the sex department, but it’s relatively clean overall.

As Moon states in her introduction, she spent some time working with the mental health teams dealing with PTSD and recovering from life-changing injuries, and it’s good to see that a main character to be a woman, a soldier, a pilot, suffering from injuries sustained doing a job she loved and was good at, now trying to balance her needs against being a sister, a daughter a friends and a lover – it’s a bold choice, and one that Moon pulls off well. As with the other books, they’re not huge, but still manages to cover enough ground to make it a slightly challenging/thought provoking read.

Recommended for people who want a decent romance, with a little bit of Christmas theme running through, whilst changing the game a little

About this author

Jeannie Moon is a school librarian who loves that she has a job which allows her to immerse herself in good books and call it work. A native Long Islander, Jeannie still lives there with her family and a couple of well-behaved dogs and an equally misbehaving cat.

Tule Publishing have a page dedicated to Jeannie Moon here.  You can read an excerpt from the book here.