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. 

12 Days of Book-Club-Mas

Finished January 17

12 Days of Book-Club-Mas by Once Upon a Book Club

I bought this special edition crate just to see what it was like, and was quite pleased with the experience, although due to all the postal issues in the United States, where it came from, and the volume here in Canada, I didn't get it until well into the New Year. I did limit myself to one story a day, with the associated gift for that story. 

Each story has a prompt in it somewhere, usually but not always near the end, for you to open a marked gift. Four of the gifts were books, which was nice. The other gifts related to the story, but some of the prompts definitely felt a bit awkward and contrived. I get that they had picked the gifts and then got the writers to make it work, and it definitely felt that way. In the monthly kits, the book already exists and gifts are chosen from the storyline that already exists, so no contriving is needed.

Some of the stories flowed nicely and were ones I enjoyed and had characters that I would read more about, others were either not appealing to me in plot or just didn't flow as well. Because this book of stories is used for both an Adult and a YA version of the box, many of the stories were YA oriented. 

Stories here are:

* Finding La Sabranenque by Margie Senechal (Contemporary fiction genre)

* Ways without End by T.M.Sigal (Fantasy genre)

* Somewhere by Selisa Laeza (YA Contemporary fiction genre with Spotify musical links embedded)

* An Adventure through Literature by Lagan Ashley (Fantasy genre)

* Lumi Blanche by Tia Arian (YA Fantasy genre)

* Before It Snows by Jenny L.Smith (YA Contemporary fiction genre)

* Share Your Joy by Abi Steer (Contemporary fiction genre)

* Little Treasures by Juliet Madison (Contemporary fiction genre)

* Memories at Maple Grove Inn by Kristine Eckart (Contemporary fiction genre)

* Love Overdue by Wendy Waltrip (YA Romance genre)

* The Right Path by Krista Holly (Contemporary Romance genre)

* The Promise by Hazel Prior (Contemporary fiction genre)

The final story is my favourite in the book and it was interesting to read these authors, none of whom I'd heard of before. Brief biographies of the authors are included at the end of the book.