St. Agnes' Stand

Finished December 25

St. Agnes' Stand by Thomas Eidson

This historical western was a real page-turner for me. I wanted to find out what happened to the party of nuns and orphans that was under siege by the natives. 

I did have issues with how the Apaches were portrayed, and the violence they enacted on the people they captured. Even in the scenes between the indigenous people, they lacked depth and were stereotypical. 

The main character, Ned Swanson, is on the run from two men who want to exact revenge for him killing a friend of theirs. He wants to get to California where he has a deed to land and intends to make a fresh start. He's been on his own since he was a child and his family was killed by a passing group of Comanches. He's learned to look after himself and not depend on anyone else. 

When he comes across a group of Apaches standing near a couple of overturned wagons in a rocky gully, he makes a small act and kills one of them from afar. When he observes the wagons through his telescope, he sees a woman's face, an older woman. He determines that he can do nothing for them, and has to get moving. 

The leader of the small group under siege, Sister St. Agnes travelled with the other nuns from Philadelphia to ransom back children that were ransomed from natives by the Mexicans, who, in turn, wanted money for them. She was somewhat successful, and is now returning home with the children and her fellow nuns, with the wagons driven by Mexicans. Now, the sieged group consists of three nuns and seven children. Sister St. Agnes has been praying for God to send someone. 

When Nat goes against his better judgement and makes his way to the wagons, he wasn't expecting such a large group, nor a group so ill-equipped to outrun their captors. 

The story is a suspenseful one, with many tense moments, as Nat's skills and the Sister's calm demeanor sometimes work against each other. 

I found the book captivating, and wanted to know how things worked out. There were many surprises. 

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts

Finished December 23

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World by Christopher de Hamel

This is a fascinating look at a selection of manuscripts, each with its own story. Some have well-documented histories, others much less so. The author is a paleographer, one who studies such rare items as a profession, and you can sense the passion he has for what he does. Here is an effort to share this passion beyond his peers, with others of us who love books and history. 

He has chosen twelve manuscripts to discuss. In his introduction, he says that he thinks of them as celebrity interviews. These rare items are mostly inaccessible to the average reader, with access limited to experts who apply to view them. He talks about the things that those who do access them in person can notice, with every interaction bringing new details to light. He has deliberately chosen a variety of types of books, all ones that he has been able to see in person for the purpose of this book. Some he had accessed before, but he remained open to new revelations from them. 

His writing style is very conversation for the most part, speaking to the reader and describing his experiences with the manuscripts as well as what he has been able to learn about their origins, histories, and travels. There is some specialist language that he uses when talking about books that have portions missing or otherwise changed. 

The manuscripts he includes are:

* The Gospels of Saint Augustine, written in the late sixth century, located at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University.

* The Codex Amiatinus, c. 700, located at Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence. This is the oldest known surviving Latin Bible.

* The Book of Kells, late eigth century, located at Trinity College Dublin. This is a manuscript of the Four Gospels immersed in the Celtic world.

* The Leiden Aratea, early ninth century, located at Universiteitsbibliotheek, Leiden. This chapter looks at the practice of copying manuscripts.

* The Morgan Beatus, mid-tenth century, located at the Morgan Library and Museum, New York. This chapter looks at ideas looking forward to the year 1000 millennium.

* Hugo Pictor, late eleventh century, located in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. This chapter looks at the effects of the Norman Conquest of 1066.

* The Copenhagen Psalter, third quarter of the twelfth century, located at the Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen. This is one of the finest psalters of the time.

* The Carmina Burana, first half of the thirteenth century, located at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich. This is a small book of love songs of students and scholars.

* The Hours of Jeanne de Navarre, second quarter of the fourteenth century, located at the Bibliothéque nationale de France, Paris. This is a delicate book of hours created for a king's daughter and that became a political pawn.

* The Hengwrt Chaucer, c. 1400, located at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. This copy of The Canterbury Tales is the beginning of recognizable English literature.

* The Visconti Semideus, c. 1438, located at the National Library, St. Petersburg. This manuscript is about warfare and armaments and modern Russia.

* The Spinola Hours, c. 1515-20, located at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. This book of hours is an object of luxury and money.

The book includes many colour illustrations from the book that show details of the manuscripts and their unique illustrations. It also includes an extensive bibliography and numerous references to other manuscripts that may interest the reader. 

I learned a lot from this, and read this book over many months, pausing to reflect on and enjoy the contents. 

The Mistletoe Motive

Finished December 19

The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese

This Christmas romance takes place at a bookstore. The store is not doing as well financially since a chain opened a location nearby. It is down to only two staff: Gabriella (Gabby) Di Natale and Jonathan Frost, who are co-managers. Gabby was promoted to manager when the owners stepped back from being in the store, but she found it a lot to juggle and they noticed. They hired Jonathan who is more focused on the financial side of things, and Gabby has not been as aware of that since. 

When they realize that unless they manage a Christmas sales period miracle, one of them will likely be gone come January, Gabby suggest the decision of who gets to stay should be based on sales. Jonathan reluctantly agrees. 

Gabby is very good at sales and marketing and she has a lot of ideas to increase sales. She also is very good at customer relationships and creating a welcoming atmosphere. Jonathan has his own passions regarding books, but he doesn't give off a welcoming vibe. 

Gabby struggles with anxiety, but tries to hide it. She is autistic and is also very sensitive to sounds and smells and uses a variety of tools and actions to control that, including wearing noise-cancelling headphones when out in public (although not in the store). 

Jonathan is aware of some of her sensitivities since he is very observant, but hasn't made all the connections yet. This means that he tries to protect her from some things, but not always to good effect. He also has some personal secrets, which gradually come to light through the novel. 

She has a strong family connection, with her parents particularly. Her father is a famous ice hockey player, but she doesn't advertise her connection with him. It does mean that she knows a lot about hockey though. 

She has two roommates, and spends a lot of time with them. She also has a friend she's made online and has an ongoing conversation in the late evenings with him, talking about books and literature. 

I found the characters interesting, particularly Gabby, who see most of here. I enjoyed learning about her coping mechanisms and how I might interpret others I see in public differently based on learning about her sensitivities. This is an Own Voices novel, since the author is autistic as well. 

The book also includes a playlist, with a different song for each chapter. The playlist is also available on Spotify, so that's an interesting added element. Especially since music is very important to Gabby. 

A very enjoyable holiday read. 

All the Missing Girls

Finished December 18

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda

This suspenseful tale follows Nicolette (Nic) Farrell as she returns to her hometown of Cooley Ridge, North Carolina from her current home in Philadelphia. Her brother had called her, telling her their father's dementia was getting worse and the money was tight and they needed to sell their childhood home to finance his current care home. 

Nic was back a year before when they moved her dad out of the house, but she didn't stay long. Now, she leaves Everett, her lawyer fiancé back in Philadelphia while she deals with the family situation. Nic left years before after one of her close friends, Corinne, went missing. There was a group of kids that spent time together: Nic, Corinne, Bailey, Tyler, Jackson, and Daniel were the core group, with Daniel being Nic's older brother. He'd planned to move into the garage, renovating it into an apartment, but stayed with their father until he married Laura instead. Now Daniel and Laura are expecting a child and with his work, he can't manage getting the house ready to sell on his own. Tyler now works in construction, and despite him being Nic's ex, the siblings engage him to do a lot of the work on the house. 

The story is told out of chronological order, sometimes making it hard to remember what has happened and what is still to happen. When another young woman goes missing questions link her to the previous missing girl, and everyone looks again at the group of friends and what their stories were back then. 

As Nic, Daniel, and Tyler try to manage the investigation and their father's secrets, Nic calls on Everett for legal advice, drawing him into the strange dynamics of the situation. 

This is a novel where we suspect things, but don't guess the truth until it is revealed for us. The action varies between intense and waiting periods as the story unfolds for us, with unexpected revelations.

The Merry Matchmaker

Finished December 17

The Merry Matchmaker by Sheila Roberts

This holiday novel is set in the small town of Carol in the U.S. The central character, Frankie Lane grew up there and started a store called Holiday Happiness shortly before her husband Ike's death in a car accident caused by a distracted driver. She employs her daughter Natalie, her mother Adele, and a newcomer to town, Elinor. Frankie is a woman who is always trying to help those around her, whether they asked for her help or not. For example, Natalie makes small batches of delectable chocolates and Frankie often tries to get her to make it a full-time business. Natalie prefers to do it in small batches, and spend time with her husband Jonathan and young son Warner. She's also trying to set up friends and family who are single, despite not being interested in starting a new relationship herself. 

A couple of years ago she came up with the idea of having a Santa Walk shortly before Christmas, on December 21st. She's been Mrs. Claus the last couple of years and is looking forward to a repeat performance. Her late husband's best friend, Mitch Howard, who runs Handy's Hardware next door to her shop, has been Santa Claus. 

Besides her best friend Viola, Mitch is her closest friend. They watch action movies and a show called Cop Stop together, eat together often, and bring each other lattes from the local coffee shop.

The head of the Santa Walk committee this year is Barbara, a local businesswoman that Frankie doesn't get along with and she soon finds that Barbara's changes affect her own role. 

When she tries to set up her divorced little sister Stef with a new man, she finds herself the focus of male interest, which confuses her. Stef works at the local paper and is the person who answers the children's letters to Santa, although sometimes she doesn't get that right, and finds herself the target of a parent's frustration. 

It took me a while to get into it, as I could see one of the potential romances quite quickly, while the character seemed oblivious to blatant remarks from her admirer. But it improved as more romantic entanglements showed promise and didn't always move forward in a predictable way. An upbeat holiday read. 

The Sweetest Dream

Finished December 16

The Sweetest Dream by Doris Lessing

This novel takes us from the early 1960s through the late 1980s, following generations of one family and their friends. We see relationships, both intimate and friendly, come and go, and we observe how the political landscape changes over time. 

In the early part of the book, the main character is Frances Lennox, a divorced woman, who sacrifices her own dreams to support her children, Andrew and Colin. Her ex-husband, Johnny, is deep into communism, travelling and speaking about his politics not just across the country, but internationally. Johnny's mother Julia had tried to give money to Frances when he didn't pay maintenance, but Frances found work and managed. Both boys agreed to go to schools funded by Julia, Andrew to Eton and Colin to St. Joseph's. It was only when Frances realized how much their living situation was resented by the boys, that she agreed to move into Julia's house, with Julia living on the top floor and them having the rest.

Frances soon found herself catering to more people, as the boys friends and girlfriends, ex-friends and girl-friends came to meals and some ended up moving in. 

The reader can see how Frances is resigned to her situation, and keeps Johnny at a distance as much as she can, but accepts whoever of the younger generation appears at her table, and even those young African men that Johnny brings as young communist idealists. She deals with the issues of the time, rebellion against her generation, rebellion against traditional expectations, experimentation with drugs, the sexual revolution, and more. She even deals with the added presence of Tilly (Sylvia) the daughter of Johnny's second wife, when she is moved into the house. 

The later part of the novel follows Sylvia as she goes to Africa as a doctor, working in a remote community and trying to help the local people who are starved for medical, and educational assistance. The country she goes to, Zimlia, is a fictional one, but has strong parallels to the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. 

The writing is so good, and the story interesting. The only issue I had with the novel is that there are no chapters, just occasionally a few blank lines, indicating a change in time, setting, etc. For me, as a reader, I like to have a feel for when I can make a pause in my reading and the lack of chapters in a book is something I find personally frustrating. 

That aside, this is an amazing read, with so much depth, both of characters and of setting, that it is worth reading. It immersed me into the story. 

The Sound of Sleighbells

Finished December 15

The Sound of Sleighbells by Janet Dailey

This holiday romance takes place in a wintry Texas. The female main character, Ruth McCoy has found a good job as a school custodian, and is looking to sell her family's land to get enough money to buy a home for her and her three children. She's faced some obstacles, with her first husband, Tom, killed in a violent crime, and her second, Ed, divorced after engaging in a violent crime. Her second husband and father to her two young girls, Tammy and Janeen, was also abusive towards Ruth, and she is glad that she was able to divorce him quickly and that he is serving a long sentence. She also has a couple of close friends that she can rely on. One of them, Jess, is the mother of her teenage son Skip's best friend Trevor, so that brings them together as well. 

When the two boys are enlisted to help another neighbour, Judd Rankin, a custom saddle maker, Ruth has another worry. Judd was her high school boyfriend, and her son is his, although he isn't aware of it. Judd went to prison for manslaughter before Ruth told him of her situation, and Tom was happy to be Skip's father. 

The community is looking forward to their Christmas parade, which will happen a few days before Christmas, and the boys get involved in a project that requires Judd's supervision. When a man from Judd's past appears on his doorstep, things get more complicated, and dangerous, for everybody involved. 

I found this a fast-moving novel, with opportunities to see Ruth, Judd, and Skip have deeper character development. A feel-good romance with a touch of suspense. 

The Secret of Snow

Finished December 14

The Secret of Snow by Viola Shipman

Sonny Dunes is an award-winning, dedicated meteorologist working at a television channel in Palm Springs, California. Unexpectedly, the son of the owner, who manages the station replaces her with an AI avatar, and she, after an afternoon of drinks with a former co-worker, takes out her anger on air. 

As she searches for a new job, she finds that the only station offering her a position is in her Michigan hometown. The station news manager is a college classmate that she rebuffed as a friend.  

Sonny finds that she has been hired to bring the station higher in the local ratings, and she decides to accept her situation and work hard at her local 'on location' assignments all designed to feature her outdoors and enjoying winter activities. 

Sonny has moved back in with her widowed mother, a hospice nurse, and soon finds that her return to her hometown means that she also has to face her past, something that she's been running from for her entire adult life. The untimely death of her little sister, who absolutely loved winter, is something that she never fully dealt with emotionally, and now she can't avoid the memories.

Along with this, someone begins a sneaky campaign to frame her as a cold, uncaring person, editing video and posting it online. 

Sonny would like to move forward, and heal, for her mother as well as herself, but she finds herself cracking under the pressure. 

This is a fast-moving plot with lots of interesting characters, and a small-town setting that evokes community. Sonny is a woman who has built a life distancing herself from her trauma, and she shows herself to be only too human in the circumstances. 

My copy of this novel also included a novella entitled "Christmas in Tinsel Tree Village," also set in Michigan around a woman who fled a different sadness and creating a career in marketing, specializing in Christmas window displays and bottlebrush trees. 

Is She Really Going Out With Him?

Finished December 11

Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Sophie Cousens

This romance novel is easy to lose oneself in. Anna Appleby is a journalist who has a arts and culture column in the magazine Bath Living, and has lived in Bath most of her life. She and her ex, Dan, separated a few months ago, and he's moved on, travelling to all the places Anna wanted to go to. She's busy with work and their two children, Ethan who is seven, and Jess, twelve.

She is doing a volunteer stint, reading for Ethan's school class when an email comes through with her divorce decree, and she loses it. 

The story jumps to eighteen months later, and we see her adjusting to her change in circumstances. She and her sister Lottie are close, and Lottie and her husband Seb are expecting their first child. Anna still lives in the marital home and hasn't really changed anything, but we see that change begin as the novel unfolds. 

Changes are also up at Anna's work, where the magazine has changed ownership and the staff are being challenged to engage with a younger demographic. One of Anna's colleagues, Will Havers, seems to have lots of ideas, and Anna finds that he has eyes on her column space. She makes a strong case for a new concept that the magazine editor agrees to, but still finds herself sharing that space with Will. 

Anna tries online dating, but finds unexpected challenges like AI responses as well as the tech barrier she expected. She changes her theme to dating men that her children pick for her, and finds herself making new friends, engaging with her community in new ways, and reconnecting with herself. 

Her relationship with Will also changes, becoming more collaborative and the chemistry between them grows, especially after a weekend assignment or two. 

I really enjoyed seeing Anna bloom into her new life, taking risks, and finding friendships in unexpected places. Her kids are fun, and I enjoyed seeing a little of Jess's growth as well. 

One Who Has Been Here Before

Finished December 10

One Who Has Been Here Before by Becca Babcock

This is described as gothic fiction, but it didn't have that vibe for me. 

The main character, Emma Gaugin Weaver, was adopted as a child. She, her siblings, and cousins were seized by CPS after the family farm was raided. The adults were all charged with crimes, ranging from child neglect to possession of stolen property. The authorities found the conditions unsuitable for the children and they ended up in foster care or adoption. Emma has only vague memories of the family farm in rural Nova Scotia, with clearer ones of her older sister Heather, who was briefly in the same foster home as her. Emma was eventually adopted by her foster parents, the Weavers, and the family moved to Edmonton. 

Emma is a woman without strong motivations. She has a history of anxiety, and a love of history, that has led her into working on her Master's degree. Her advisors encouraged her to delve into the relatively new area of auto-ethnography, where she researches her own family and her feelings around that. 

As the book opens, Emma has travelled back to Nova Scotia and has found the area when the farm the Gaugin family lived on was located. As she visits the local archives, and talks to people who knew the story of her family, she doesn't reveal her own origins at first, but finds herself drawn into meeting her own family members, dealing with anxiety attacks around the situations she finds herself in, and entering a new relationship. 

An interesting read, with a sympathetic character who undergoes growth in her understanding of herself.

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off

Finished December 6

Murder at the Christmas Cookie Bake-Off by Darci Hannah

This is the second book in the Beacon Bakeshop series, set in the small town of Beacon Harbor, Michigan. The Bakeshop is located in a decommissioned lighthouse that also is the home of the owner, Lindsey Bakewell. The tower is a place she likes to go to to relax, mostly in summer, but she has it outfitted with heaters and blankets for colder weather as well. The tower is also said to be haunted by the first lighthouse keeper there, Captain Willy Riggs. His pipe smoke is the sign of his presence. 

Some backstory: Lindsey used to be an investment banker, and her mother was a fashion model before marriage. She has a Newfoundland dog named Wellington. She is also in a relationship with one of her neighbours, Rory Campbell. She has several staff members, counter staff and baristas, but is in need of an assistant baker. 

When Felicity Stewart, owner of a Christmas store in town announces a new addition to the town's Christmas Festival of a Christmas bake-off, Lindsey finds herself excited, yet overwhelmed, especially when other unprepared shop owners in town enlist her services. Felicity has also arranged for a Chicago food critic to be the judge, and film it for his show. When the bake-off becomes more competitive than friendly, Lindsey finds herself the one to stumble upon a dead body that brings into question everybody's actions. 

A cozy mystery with a little romance thrown in, as well as a ghost that guides Lindsey's amateur detective work, this is a seasonal light read. There are also numerous baking recipes included at the back of the book, drawn from the finalist's submissions and Lindsey's own bakery offerings. 

A Holly Jolly Diwali

Finished December 5

A Holly Jolly Diwali by Sonya Lalli

This romance novel is set around Niki Randhawa, a late twenties data analyst living in Seattle. As the book opens her parents have approached her, worried about her single status. She agrees to have them give her number to a man they know of through friends. Niki has always made practical choices, as opposed to her older sister Jasmine, who has always been a rebel. Jasmine has followed her dreams and has a great career in the art world she loves. Niki, meanwhile chose practicality despite her own love for music and art, and she is good at what she does, but lately has been bored by her job. 

When she is unexpectedly laid off minutes before she is supposed to meet her date, she acts in a different way, choosing things that aren't safe. Drinking too much on the date, she impulsively decides to change her mind about attending her college best friend's wedding in India, and books a flight. 

She arrives in time for Diwali, and her questions about the holiday get answered in different ways, depending on who she asks. This also prompts questions about her knowledge of Indian culture and language. Her parents, who are Sikh and Punjabi are proud of their heritage, but not strongly religious and never educated their daughters in Punjabi as many of her peers have been educated. 

She also begins to question her own choices and when she meets someone she is attracted to she wavers between moving forward and holding back. While in India, she meets both new friends and relatives she hadn't seen before, and learns more about both herself and her culture. 

Back home in Seattle, she begins to have meaningful conversations with her parents about culture and choices, and she begins to have a true friendship with her sister. 

I liked the growth of the character in this novel. The romance was an interesting plot element, but for me, it was secondary to her own self awareness. 

Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Finished December 4

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, translated by Geoffrey Trousselot

This book is the first in the series names for this title. It is a book set in a small basement coffee shop in a back alley in Tokyo. The shop has existed for decades and there is a legend that the shop also gives customers the chance to travel back in time. 

In this book, there are four stories, each with a customer visiting the cafe with the hope that the legend is true and that they can make such a journey. But there are rules around these journeys: One is that the traveller cannot change the present, no matter what they do. Another is that you can only meet someone who has visited the coffee shop. A third is that there is only one place in the shop that you can sit to travel, and you must remain in that seat for the duration. A fourth rule is the limit of the visit, the time is takes from the coffee being poured until it gets cold. And the visitor has to drink all the coffee or they will be stuck as a ghost. 

The visitors here go back for various reasons, and we see all of these visitors in the introduction to the first story. Here Fumiko wants to go back to have a different conversation with her boyfriend Goru who recently went to work in America. 

In the second story, Kohtake wants to go back to before her husband Fusagi, who has early-onset Alzheimer's, forgot who she was. A staff member at the shop says that the reason Fusagi wanted to go back was to give her a letter, but that she can go back to get it herself. 

The third story is the story of sisters. Hirai runs a snack bar near the coffee shop. She came to Tokyo from the outskirts of Sendai, a city a few hours north of Tokyo, where her parents ran an inn. Her younger sister Kumi comes often to the cafe to try to meet Hirai, but Hirai won't talk with her. Hirai left because her parents expected her to take over running the inn and she didn't want to, and they eventually transferred their expectations to Kumi. When something happens to Kumi, Hirai knows that she wants to have that conversation with her sister that she's been avoiding. 

The fourth story shifts the conversations around travelling in time to contemplate travelling to the future and the difficulty of determining whether the one you want to meet with be there at the time you travel to. One of the coffee shop workers decides to do it, with the others promising to do what they can to ensure the meeting takes place. 

I liked the premise of the book, and the parameters around these travels in time. They are very different from what we often see in novels with time travel as a concept. 

A feel-good read that will appeal to a variety of readers. 

A Cotswold Killing

Finished December 2

A Cotswold Killing by Rebecca Tope

I've read a later book in this series, but this is the first book in the series featuring widow and amateur detective Thea Osborne and her dog Hepzibah. There is a map in the front that shows the locations of the first eleven books in the series, so you can see how they relate to each other geographically. I would have liked it more if they had also included Thea's town of Witney. She also has a note at the front that indicates that her settings are real places, including the churches and pubs (which are describing in enticing ways as the main character visits them). More personal places like farms and houses are imagined by the author. 

As the book opens, Thea is preparing to go to her first house sitting commission, looking after a small sheep farm in Duntisbourne Abbots, the home of Clive and Jennifer Reynold. The couple are headed off on a cruise. Thea has been widowed just over a year and is still grieving in many ways as we see through the course of the novel. 

When one of her neighbours is murdered on the farm she is looking after on her first night there, Thea finds herself drawn into the life of this secretive village, looking for information on the young man who was killed, his connections, and her other neighbours. 

It helps Thea that her brother-in-law, James, is a superintendent in the West Midlands police. This gives her a helpful reference for her house sitting commissions, and a link to police investigations. She finds that this connection also has benefits for James and his fellow police officers. 

The character of Thea is built with depth here, as we see both her strengths and weaknesses appear as the mystery unfolds. Her dog is a comfort and a companion, a calm presence in most situations. I liked seeing her come to life for me, and found the mystery intriguing

Witch of Wild Things

Finished November 29

Witch of Wild Things by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

This is the first book in a series called Wild Magic. Sage Flores is the oldest of three sisters and eight years ago she left her hometown of Cranberry, Virginia after the death of her youngest sister, Sky. Middle sister Teal blames her for Sky's death, although they both know that isn't the case. 

The girls grew up in their aunt Nadia's house after their mother left town when they were young. A family legend says that it is a curse that all the women in the family have magic in them, and sometimes it feels that way. Sage's gift is with plants. She can identify plants from the smallest piece of them, and can communicate with them in a way. Sky's gift was with animals, and Teal's with weather. 

Sky fell from a cliff when engaging in risky behaviour, but her body was never found. Her ghost haunts Sage, offering ups cups of flavoured coffee and sometimes, when Sage cries, becoming visible to her. Sky tells her that she can't move on until Sage heals the rift between herself and Teal. 

Sage began working with jewelry and had a job teaching at a college. Budget cuts cost her the position, and she is moving back home as the book begins. Nadia's glad to have her back, but Teal not so much. Sage's best friend Laurel is also looking forward to her return. She lets Sage know that her old crush Tennessee Reyes is also back in town. 

Nadia has contacted some people in town already, and Sage finds that she already has a job offer back with the local garden company. She worked there in high school, where she became known as the 'plant whisperer'. 

Interspersed in the story are online chat conversations between Sage and Reyes from their high school days. Sage knew who she was talking to, but he didn't and never found out. This is something that becomes a part of the plot in the novel. The two are thrown together in a project at their workplace where they are tasked with visiting places in the area to look for local plants that aren't already supplied there. Working together means that they get to know each other, and figure out what drives each other in their lives, but they also find themselves drawn to each other. 

I really enjoyed the magical part of this novel, and the ways in which the different characters related to each other. A satisfying read. 

Almost a Bride

Finished November 27

Almost a Bride by Patricia McLinn

This is the first book in the Wyoming Wildflowers series. The main female character Matty Brennan, left her home town six years ago after a sudden relationship breakup. Now she's back to take over the family ranch, but it isn't in the best shape after her uncle mismanaged it. She's working closely with her lead hand to get it back in the black, but one thing she wants to do is irrigate and she need's grant money to do that. Her ex-boyfriend, Dave Currick, runs his own ranch, as well as having a law practice in town. He's noticed her arrival back in town and hopes to reconnect.

When she shows up on his doorstep asking to get married, and quickly, giving her reasons, he agrees. Both of them find their old feelings for each other returning, but things from the past need to be resolved before they can truly move forward. 

Both of them have old habits that they need to figure out how to change, and there are situations that force some of that change. This is a second chance romance, with some interesting characters, and the end sets up things for the next book in the series. 

December Reviews for the 18th Annual Canadian Reading Challenge

 This is where you post links to your reviews for books meeting the challenge that you finished in December. Add a comment too if you like. 

Shubeik Lubeik

Finished November 27

Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed, translated by Deena Mohamed

This graphic novel trilogy in one volume is set in a version of our world where wishes are a commodity that can be bought and sold. One man, Shokry, is the owner of a kiosk in Cairo, where he sells a variety of goods. In conversation with one of his regular customers, Shawqia, he reveals that he has three first class wishes, given to him by his father, but his father also counselled him never to use them. 

Shawqia urges him to sell them, and one of her young relatives makes him a sign. 

We gradually learn more about the world, including the bureaucracy around wishes in Egypt and internationally, and later about the history of these particular wishes. 

Each part of the trilogy deals with one of the wishes and what happens to it. We see the struggle each of the users of the wish undergo as they determine how to use it, and how their situation in life affects that use. The first wish user, Aziza, comes from a working class background and struggles with personal loss, survival, and a bureaucracy that isn't fair. The next wish user, Nour is a college student from a wealthy background and struggles with depression. Nour isn't sure how or whether to use the wish to help himself with his mental state. The last user is Shokry himself, who struggles with the vast need he sees across his community, the personal health of a woman he has come to know, and his father's and his religion's stance regarding the wishes. 

This trilogy was originally written in Arabic and the book is still structured for the right to left reading of it. The novel won awards in its original form, and gives insight into a culture and place I am not personally familiar with. The translation of the title is a fairy tale rhyme that means "your wish is my command" and thus fits perfectly with the contents. 

Eighteen

Finished November 25

Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxton

This interesting history book encompasses history, biography, and fiction in one book. The author takes the idea of eighteen being the commonly understood age that people become adults and looks at eighteen British people whose achievements made large impacts on Britain, when they were eighteen. The short biographies focus on them at that age, but also discuss what brought them to that place, in terms of both background and personal achievements, and what their lives went on to become and what achievements they made later in their lives. She has chosen people that she could find some information on from that point in their lives, but her choices are all personal favourites as well, people she would want to spend time with. 

Her introduction discusses the idea of adulthood and age being linked, and looks at how this idea changed over time. She also talks about Britain as a country, and it's evolution over time. She also talks about the fictional element of the book here. Between each of the biographical chapters are descriptions of a dinner party, an eighteenth birthday party that each of these people are attending together. Near the end of the book she includes a seating plan for this dinner, and a list of places that were important to one or another of them as well as being worth visiting. Her writing style is conversational and disarming, with references to pop culture as well as posing interesting questions for the reader to think about. 

This book is in many ways aimed at those who are new adults themselves, particularly in the last chapter, and at the end of the book a collection of advice from various people to eighteen year olds is insightful and potentially helpful.

Some of those she included I was familiar with, and others were completely new to me, but I found all of the entries interesting and learned something new even about the people I was previously aware of. This is an historical book that is very approachable and readable and I highly recommend it. 

The Mistletoe Mystery

Finished November 19

The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose

This novella is part of the Molly the Maid series, but the first book I've read in the series. As indicated by the title, the story takes place in December, and Molly has always loved the holidays. Molly has insecurities that come to light here. She doesn't feel attractive enough for her boyfriend Juan Manuel, a kitchen worker who is employed at the same hotel as her. She's also had bad experiences in the past with secret Santa exchanges, particularly with one other staff member who reports to her. 

Molly is also celebrating her first Christmas with Juan and when he seems secretive, she immediately worries about their relationship. 

This is a novel that makes reference to a beloved holiday story, The Gift of the Magi by O.Henry, and that brings in feelings around trust and friendship. A short, feel-good holiday tale. 

Kiss Me at Christmas

Finished November 16

Kiss Me at Christmas by Jenny Bayliss

This delightful novel has romance, character growth, and lots of Christmas spirit. The main character is Harriet, an English teacher turned pastoral care worker at a private school, Foss Independent. She is a strong advocate for her students, particularly the small cohort of local students admitted as part of a 'leveling-up' scheme. These students struggle because the rest of their peers come from wealthy backgrounds and privilege, and they come from broken homes and poverty. 

The book opens in mid-November, when Harriet is at a local pub, comforting herself with mulled wine after hearing that her daughter Maisy, who is on a student exchange to the United States, has been invited to stay through Christmas, where she will be going with her host family to a mountain cabin for the holidays. Harriet has encouraged her, but will miss her dreadfully. This is the longest they've ever been apart, and Harriet is a big celebrator of Christmas, putting a lot of effort into decorating and other seasonal endeavours. 

When she locks eyes with a handsome man across the pub, she decides to act on her attraction and invites him to join her. She ends the evening at his upscale apartment with a very satisfying encounter. When she wakens in the morning to find him in the shower, she panics at her actions, extremely out of character for her, and leaves before he returns. 

At school, when several of her local students are absent, she decides to track them down to get them back to school before the head of her department notices. She finds them in a old, unused theatre, and soon after the police find them all. To protect her students, Harriet takes the fall for their trespass on the property, and later that morning finds herself face to face with the owner's lawyer, James Knight,who turns out to be her partner from the previous evening. 

The owner, Evaline Winter, is an older woman who shut the theatre decades earlier when she inherited the property from her father. She owns several businesses and is very wealthy, but for personal reasons that we discover, has let the theatre fall into disrepair. To avoid facing charges, Harriet finds agreeing to arrange for a single night show at the theatre, involving the students that she was with there. As she finds herself gaining new skills as she tackles this challenge, she also finds herself making community connections, new friends, and facing her fears. 

I really enjoyed the numerous characters, seeing the students skills get recognized and utilized and watching them become more confident, seeing the community coming together through this opportunity, and seeing Harriet and James take risks and voice their insecurities. 

Another Heartbeat in the House

Finished November 13

Another Heartbeat in the House by Kate Beaufoy

From the cover I thought this might be historical romance with a touch of mystery, but it was something with more depth than I expected. It is historical fiction, but deals with two time periods. The framing time period is late 1936 and early 1937. Here, Edie Chadwick is the main character, a young woman who works in publishing. This year had two tragedies for Edie, the death of her beloved dog and the rift in a long and close friendship with her friend Hilly. It is New Year's Eve as the book begins, and Edie is visited by another close friend, Ian Fleming, who she has known since she was a child. Yes, he is that Ian Fleming, but is a minor character here. After a couple of drinks in her flat, Ian convinces her to join him at a party he has been invited to. There, she runs into a distant relative, "uncle" Jack Frobisher and the conversation goes to a house he owns in Ireland. He and his family don't use it anymore and he needs someone to go over and shut the place up before selling it. 

After another tragic incident in Edie's life happens, she decides to take up Jack's offer and go to Ireland. She will be going through all the contents of the house, deciding what should go to auction and what should be kept or thrown away. She also plans to bring some of her copy-editing work so she doesn't fall too far behind. Ian shows up just before her train leaves and thrusts a dog on her, a Maltese with a pedigree. I love the way that she and the puppy have conversations over the course of the novel. 

In Ireland, she discovers handwritten pages in the attic, written by a woman who lived in the house in the 1840s, and that tell her story. She is a woman with ambition, one who intends to find a way to make a comfortable life for herself, but her plans find themselves getting more complicated than she intended and her life takes a different turn. The woman's name is Eliza Drury and she turns out to have a literary acquaintance that is someone who wrote a book considered a classic. As Edie learns more about Eliza, and the house itself, she finds herself learning about Ireland's history, the making of a novel, and about a woman who led a fascinating life. 

I found this novel engrossing in many ways, and enjoyed it immensely. 

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch

Finished November 12

The Holiday Honeymoon Switch by Julia McKay

This fun holiday romance has a lot happening, and was a page-turner for me. On the evening before her wedding, Holly Beech's fiancé Matt tells her that he won't go through with the wedding, that they aren't really 'in love' with each other, and that he's met someone else. Holly is at her best friend, Ivy Casey's apartment getting ready for the wedding, and Ivy is left consoling her and feeling that she was right in her sense that Matt wasn't the right man for Holly. 

Holly can't bear to go to the luxury Hawaiian resort that her parents paid for, and since it is nonrefundable, she suggests that her and Ivy trade vacations. Ivy, a graphic designer, has an art vacation every year, where she uses her favourite oil pastels to create landscape pictures. Ivy has compartmentalized her art and makes it special for this time only. She has booked an eco-cabin in the Hudson Valley for this year. 

Both women are in for surprises when they arrive at their destinations. Holly finds the host of her cabin, who drops by to help her figure out some of the technology involved, is her high school academic rival Aiden. Ivy finds that someone else is already in the honeymoon suite at the Kauai resort, Matt and his new girlfriend. As she tries to find a place to stay in the popular season there, the extremely attractive bartender at the resort, Oliver, comes to her rescue. As both women weigh the decision to engage in a new relationship, they also must come to terms with their own issues, of confidence and routines. 

This is a novel of friendship, of unexpected love, and of taking chances. Thoroughly enjoyable. 

Sugar Plum Poisoned

Finished November 12

Sugar Plum Poisoned by Jenn McKinlay

This was a fun read. It is the fifteenth book in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series, and the first one I've read. This one is set on the central characters' home turf of Scottsdale, Arizona. The two main characters are Angie Harper and Melanie DeLaura. The two, alone with Angie's husband Tate own Fairy Tale Cupcakes. They have franchised the business to other locations, with Tate being the one going on the road and do this side of the business. Angie and Melanie run the local shop, along with counter help staff. 

The book opens with news that a close friend that Angie made before her marriage is coming to town and wants them to do catering for her several nights. Shelby Vaughn is a singer, just starting to make it big, and she will be playing Christmas shows at a hotel in town. 

Once she shows up, it becomes apparent that something is off about her relationship with her manager. Doc. He seems very controlling, and questions begin to emerge about whether he is acting in Shelby's best interests. 

When he is found dead in Shelby's dressing room, things get more tense. There seem to be plenty of people around that have issues with Shelby, Doc, or both, and Angie and Melanie take it upon themselves to protect Shelby while getting at the truth. 

Melanie also has Christmas dinner to plan as she is hosting it this year for the first time and the size of the gathering keeps getting bigger. 

I enjoyed the mystery as well as the interesting cupcake ideas. There are quite a few recipes at the back of the book for those readers interested in trying them out. 

The Glass Maker

Finished November 11

The Glass Maker by Tracy Chevalier

This novel takes place over several time periods, all following one character, Orsola Rosso of Murano, Italy. Chevalier uses a very interesting device to do this: imagining that time flows differently in this area of the world. The story starts in 1486, with Orsola at nine years old, the eldest daughter in a family of glass blowers. She makes her first acquaintance with a female glassblower in another family in Murano, Maria Barovier. Women don't generally work with glass, although they play a key role in the family, and sometimes have a role in the family business as well, in the background. They also have a social position and traditions that accompany that. When Orsola is seventeen, her father, the maestro of their family glass shop, dies in a workplace accident, she is encouraged by Maria to try her hand at lampwork, a technique of making glass beads that was beginning to be practiced by women as a way to gain some independence and bring additional money into the household. 

The family is struggling, and her oldest brother, Marco, doesn't have the full training to take charge, and yet he must. Their father's assistant Paolo must serve as a teacher and mentor, guiding Marco and his brother Giacomo in their work. But Marco is impetuous and temperamental and it is the women in his life who must manage this, first his mother, and then his wife. Maria also provides helpful advice in their difficult situation. We also see the importance of the merchant for the family. He is the one who takes their work and sells it, not only locally but also internationally. He also indicates what type of product he is looking for and has the power to accept or decline new products. For the Rossos, this merchant is Gottfried Klingenberg, a German who has specialized in glass. It is around this time she also meets a man who joins the business, one who will hold her heart as the years pass by. 

The first jump in time is to 1574, but Orsola is only a year older at eighteen. As we follow her through the years, which, while they flow slower than the rest of the world, don't flow at an even rate, we see her grow in her skills and adjust to new tastes in the market. 

We also see her family change, grow and contract, and add new members from outside the initial family group. We also see major historical events, such as plagues, Napoleon's conquest of Venice, and wars. 

I alway enjoy Chevalier's writing, with strong female characters at the center, and this one brings in a new aspect with the large time frame it encompasses. This also gives us insight to cultural change, in the society in which Orsola lives, but also in the city she lives in and the larger world. The introduction of a slave to the story in a gondolier named Domenego brought in another social element, one inspired by a painting the author saw. She used real life characters in some time periods that added to the historical settings. For me, this was also an introduction into an industry I knew only a little about before. 

Paris by the Book

Finished November 8

Paris by the Book by Liam Callanan

This is a novel I really enjoyed. Leah and her family live in Milwaukee. She is the primary breadwinner and her husband Robert is a writer. He often goes away for short periods of time without notice to write. This time, he doesn't return. As Leah reports him missing and begins to search for clues to his disappearance, she finds a reservation for four plane tickets to Paris, a place they had dreamed of visiting for years. 

Once in Paris, they sightsee, planning to return before school starts again in the fall, but when they find an unfinished manuscript that Robert had been writing, and that it is set in Paris, Leah and her daughters Daphne and Ellie find a bookstore that mirrors the one in the manuscript, and buy it from the woman who owns it. They move into the building, living above the bookstore, with the owner, an older woman, living above them. 

They also begin looking after the woman's twin grandchildren, who are younger than Daphne and Ellie, and whose father travels a lot for his job. 

As the trio adjust to their new life in Paris, they also all privately keep an eye out for Robert, sure that he will appear at some point. 

There is also an interesting layer about two of the most popular French children's books, Madeline by Bemelman and The Red Balloon by Lamorisse. 

The book is told from Leah's point of view and captures her emotions well. She thinks back on how she and Robert met and ended up together, and about some of the difficulties they had in their marriage. She feels both loss of his presence and relief of him not being there. Leah had wanted to be a filmmaker, and had studied in that field, but her need to create a stable environment for her family had her giving up her dream, while Robert still pursued his. 

This is not a light novel, but it is one that is very relatable in the complexity of relationships and life dreams. 

Miss Mabel's School for Girls

Finished October 31

Miss Mabel's School for Girls by Katie Cross

This is the first book in a teen fantasy series set in another world. As the book opens, Bianca Monroe is running through Letum Wood, having just been accepted into the school. Bianca has a motive for applying to the school, one where young women hone their skills as witches. This motive is revealed relatively early in the book, but then we see how Bianca has to manage her expectations about how her initial goal would work out. She must undergo tests and trials as she tries to get out from under the curse that Miss Mabel has set on her, her mother, and her grandmother. 

I enjoyed the story, particularly the two friends that Bianca found early in her studies, Lida and Camile. Lida's skills in particular were important for Bianca. 

This is a story that grew on me. Miss Mabel is an evil character that is easy to hate, but she is also constantly surprising. The other teachers seem minor characters until the end of this first novel in the series. As Bianca's family situation was gradually revealed, it became more interesting. 

There are four main books in the series, with some that fit before or between them. 

The Life Impossible

Finished October 31

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig

This is a story of life, of loss, of connection. It is about appreciating the world, and how everyone has their own story. 

The story is structured around emails by a man to his former teacher, and her response. Her response is the major portion of the novel and tells of her life, particularly when she received an inheritance from a former fellow teacher of a house in Ibiza, Spain. 

The narrator, Grace Winters is a retired math teacher. She tells of the brief friendship she had with Christina, an art teacher, particularly one Christmas that they spent together. Christina left for Spain soon after, and Grace went on to marry, have a child, and experience loss. Mathematics is both a comfort and a coping mechanism. Whenever she feels overwhelmed, she does math in her head. 

When she decides to go to Spain to see this house, she doesn't know what to expect, but it certainly isn't this ugly little house in the middle of nowhere. She finds she has also been left a car, and a list of recommended things to do. There is also a plan that she isn't aware that involves one of Christina's friends. The experience she undergoes changes her life forever. It takes her grief and loss, and her depression and takes her out of them, to see the world around her, in all its beauty and pain. Grace finds that she has been given a task, but also an opportunity, and she must open herself up to this experience as she faces her past and her pain and recognizes that others have their own stories that also resonate with her.

There is an amorphous being that is part of this story, a life presence from another place, that has power that Grace learns to draw from. This is a tale that feels both fantastical and relatable. A very interesting book that is hard to define. 

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.