November Reviews for the 18th Canadian Reading Challenge

This is where you link up your reviews for books meeting the challenge that were read in November. 

Add a comment as well!

The Christmas Countdown

Finished October 30

The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy

This seasonal romance is a satisfying feel-good novel. The main character, Callie Meyer grew up in small town Virginia. Her mother's best friend lived next door, and both were thrilled when Callie and Oliver, the best friend's son started dating in high school. They'd been together for several years when Oliver got a job in the town of Fallbrook in upstate New York and asked Callie to join him. She quit her job and followed, and got a new job in the same company he worked for, only to have him dump her shortly thereafter. 

Callie is an accountant, and good at her job. She enjoys the city and has made a good friend in her department, Hazel. 

After the breakup, she moved in with her sister Anita, an engineer who designs rollercoasters. (I loved this detail!) As Anita observes Callie stuck in a depression as the year draws to a close, she revives a childhood tradition, an interactive advent gift adventure. Anita has put a lot of thought into this, and the gifts alternate between treats and tasks, with the tasks to get Callie out and about and hopefully making some more friends in the community. 

I really enjoyed the sisterly interaction and how they obviously cared deeply for each other. I also liked how the advent focused on Callie's personality, drawing on strong ties to her family and their traditions, as well as things Callie would actually get into once she tried them. 

This was a fun read, with lots of ideas of Christmas activities that a reader might be intrigued by. 

Book Fair and Foul

Finished October 29

Book Fair and Foul by Erika Chase

This is the fourth book in the Ashton Corners Book Club series, and the second one I've read. It is set in the small town of Ashton Corners, Alabama. Here Molly Mathews, the owner of the local bookstore, A Novel Plot, is preparing for her first annual Mystery Book Fair. It is a one day event, with four authors doing readings, signings, and a panel discussion. The local library director is acting as the moderator for the fair. Three of the writers have solid years of authorship, while one is a little newer to the game. Two of the female writers have a longstanding competitive relationship. They will staying at a local bed and breakfast, and Molly has included a couple of extra nights to let them relax and enjoy the area. 

Helping Molly are her fellow book club members. A couple of them are employees of her store, but others are mystery enthusiast friends. One of these is Lizzie Turner, who is a educational reading specialist at the local grade school. As the authors begin to arrive in town, an unexpected addition is added, Ashley Dixon, a publicist for the authors. Lizzie is disturbed by this as she has a history with Ashley that is far from pleasant. 

When Ashley turns up dead the day after the fair, Lizzie emerges as the prime suspect. They'd had a public argument the evening before and Lizzie decides that she must do what she can to clear her own name, even as her boyfriend Mark, the local police chief, assures her that he can't show favoritism in the case. 

I enjoyed the plot and the setting, although the fair certainly offered more than one would normally expect for the writers. 

The Night We Lost Him

Finished October 24

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

This was an interesting mystery that also involved more than one romantic relationship. The main story has Nora Noone approached by one of her brothers, Sam, about their father's recent death. 

Their father Liam was a charismatic man who built a luxury hotel empire specializing in unique properties that emphasized privacy and experiences. Nora's mother Rachel was his first wife, and they remained on amicable terms after their divorce. She had regular Friday dinners with her parents, and felt loved and supported by her father. She became an neuro-architect, a specialized emerging area of architecture that I wasn't previously familiar with. He had asked her more than once to either join his company or collaborate, but she preferred to make her own way.

Sam and his twin brother Tommy were children of Liam's second wife and she didn't see a lot of them. She wasn't welcomed by their mother, and so didn't really do family activities with them and didn't know them well. Sam had been on a path to professional baseball when an accident injuring his wrist made that unreachable for him. Both Tommy and Sam became involved in their father's company.

Liam also had a third wife, Inez, and we only see a little of her and only a mention of the young daughter that Liam had with her. 

Nora is grieving both her parents. Her mother died in an accident, and now her father has fallen from a cliff at his California cottage, a place that was always special to him. Sam believes that his father's death was not an accident, but that he was pushed, and he wants Nora to help him get to the truth about the sudden death. 

Nora has reacted to the losses by pulling away from those close to her, first from her father and her partner Jack following her mother's death, and more so now after her father's death. She is reluctant to believe Sam, but agrees to go with him to the cottage to look for more details. 

As they are stonewalled by the detective and other people close to Liam, they use the little information they have to continue their search with Nora's good sense playing against Sam's impetuousness emotions and actions. 

There are also short chapters from the past, gradually moving forward in time, that show Liam with a woman named Cody. They had a very close, intimate relationship that has continued for decades despite relationships that both had with others. This provides another touch of mystery as we wonder who this woman is and whether this relationship played into Liam's death.

I found this book a quick read, with the plot pulling me through the novel. I found the mysteries present in the novel offset by the personal lives of both Nora and Sam as they struggled with their own emotional needs. A winner for me. 

My Vampire Plus-One

Finished October 23

My Vampire Plus-One by Jenna Levine

This romance novel with a strong element of fantasy and lots of humour was a fun read. This is the second book in a series, and there is an excerpt from the first book at the end of the novel. 

The main female character here is Amelia Collins, a CPA in Chicago who has been given her first solo case to run. It is a non-profit called the Wyatt Foundation, and she's finding it a bit of a headache as the contact keeps sending her a lot of paperwork, mostly not to do with the tax filing. It is March and tax season is naturally a really busy time for her. 

Amelia's father is a retired history professor and her mother is a retired English teacher. They don't really understand her aptitude with numbers and haven't celebrated the moments she considers important as they have for similar achievements in other fields by her siblings. As she is in her 30s, they also pressure her to settle down with someone. 

As the book begins, she is rushing to her family's monthly dinner. She looks forward to seeing everyone, but not certain aspects. One of the things she doesn't like is the pressure on her to find someone. The other is the lack of thought given to her dietary restrictions when they pick a restaurant or host an event that involves food. This lack of thought includes her extended family as well. Outside her office building an attractive man runs into her and she drops most of what she is carrying, include the case work she is taking home. She finds him striking and odd, and strangely attractive. 

At the dinner, when faced with the news that another cousin is getting married and she is given an invitation that includes a plus-one, she blurts that she has a boyfriend. 

As she confides in her best friend Sophie later that evening, she doesn't have a lot of time to find someone. When she sees the man who ran into her again, she decides to ask him as he said he owed her one after their first encounter.

He is Reginald Cleaves, a vampire who has been accused by a small group of his kind of a fire that killed family members more than a century ago. He decides that Amelia's request poses an opportunity to deviate from his normal behaviour to avoid those looking for him. 

While he is honest with her about his vampire identity, she thinks he is joking and this miscommunication sets up the basis for their developing relationship. 

The banter is fun, I loved Sophie and her risky yet practical advice, and the fast-moving plot. Light, amusing, and with some interesting bedroom scenes. 

To Hold the Bridge

Finished October 20

To Hold the Bridge: An Old Kingdom Novella and Other Tales by Garth Nix

The novella of the title starts the book and was the most appealing of the contents for me, likely because I'm a big fan of Nix's Old Kingdom fantasy series. In the novella, Morghan, a teen boy arrives at the Bridge Company, hoping to use the one item he owns, a share certificate, hoping to use it as a way to becoming a cadet for the organization. The Bridge Company has been building a bridge over the Greenwash, the wide and dangerous river that is the northern border of the Old Kingdom, for nearly a century. As the story begins, the company has a cable-drawn ferry, a castle on one side of the river, a fortified bastion in the middle of the river, and several foundational parts of the bridge itself. The employees of the company are grouped into four seasonal shifts, with a change in shift imminent. As Morghan passes the tests set for him to be accepted as a cadet, we see more of his past and his character. As he joins in the shift as they travel to the bridge, he finds his place and gets to know his superiors and guard members. Once at the bridge, he has the time to learn more skills necessary to his work, and he faces a unexpected test that has him drawing on the magic he knows as well as the physical skills. 

Following the novella are short stories separated into five sections, each having three to five stories in them. Many of the stories involve magic, some in a world similar to ours and some in our own world in another time. The first section has stories of magical creatures that appear in our world. The second section has four coming-of-age stories. The third section has stories of struggle with magic working against a dark force. The fourth section has lighter tales, one of which plays on Sherlock Holmes stories. The last section is science fiction and has three stories that take us beyond our known world. 

A nice collection overall. I enjoyed the fantasy and magic realism stories the most. 

Twice in a Blue Moon

Finished October 18

Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren

This book is told in two short time periods fourteen years apart, in chronological order. When Tate Jones is eighteen, her grandmother takes her to London for a much anticipated trip. Her grandmother and mother run a cafe in a small California town. Her grandmother has planned their days out, cramming in as much as she can from museums and galleries to plays. 

On their first day, they meet Sam and Luther, a grandson-grandfather pair from Vermont, who are also on a much anticipated visit. Sam is a little older than Tate, at twenty-one. The four get along well, and do some things together, but Sam and Tate connect more strongly, and after once unplanned meeting in the hotel's courtyard late in the evening, Tate is sneaking out after her grandmother falls asleep to meet Sam. They lie in the grass, look at the stars, and share personal information. Some of Tate's sharing includes things very few people know about her, but she is sure that she can trust Sam with her dreams and sorrows. Sam lets her know that he is worried about Luther's health, and about his grandmother Roberta, who doesn't enjoy air travel, and who stayed home. 

The connection ends abruptly when Sam and Luther leave without goodbyes. The next day, Tate is swarmed by media as she exits the hotel for the day, and her grandmother quickly calls in assistance. With the media knowing things that she's told Sam, including her father's identity as a Hollywood film star, Tate is both sad and mad at the betrayal. 

Fourteen years later, Tate is now an actor herself, and has signed on to a movie where her father also appears in a supporting role. When Sam appears on set, she is shocked, and doesn't know how to react. She needs to talk to him, but she finds her emotions confusing. The tension is already high as Tate and her father haven't had much of a relationship over the years, despite what the media has been told. 

The story is all told from Tate's viewpoint, and while I could relate to the ease of falling in love as a susceptible young woman in her situation, the adult Tate is more controlled and less relatable. The story also lacks the humorous banter that usually appears in Christina Lauren romances, and has a more serious feel to it.

It was an enjoyable read, but not one of this author pair's best.