Book Reviews

Montana Secret Santa

Montana Secret Santa (Love at the Chocolate Shop #3) By: Debra Salonen

Plot:

Ad exec Krista Martin, while feeling more Grinch than elf, still jumps at the chance to co-chair Marietta’s Secret Santa Society. Why not? Especially since brilliant, attractive, and innovative tech wunderkind Jonah Andrews has agreed to help. He’s well connected and Krista’s hoping for some advice on rebooting her career.

Jonah knows Krista has a not-so-hidden agenda, but sparring with her over cocoa at their Secret Santa meetings is the most fun he’s had since returning to his old hometown. Krista may come across as all business, but Jonah’s positive he’s glimpsed a little girl inside her who wants to believe in Santa… and in love.

Review:

Krista is a confusing protagonist. She starts off prepared to tell her partner that she needs to step up because she’s not carrying her weight and their business is going to fail if she doesn’t pick up the slack. She ends up doing a complete one eighty when she finds out her partner is pregnant. All of a sudden none of that matters and an intern will solve everything. An intern that doesn’t start until the next year.

Jonah is a tech genius and says he’s socially inept but doesn’t seem to be at all. He takes over Secret Santa with no issues. He does have some issues with Krista, but that’s mainly because they don’t communicate.

One of my least favorite tropes, lack of communication leading to misunderstandings and in this case a flight from Montana to LA. It’s lazy writing and there were lots of bits like that, characters were inconsistent in things that weren’t romance related. One minute Krista was concerned about her business, the next it wasn’t a big deal and they were going to be alright. Jonah is supposed to be humble, but he talks about his staff and drops around the fact that he’s a millionaire and gives people hundred dollar bills for Christmas. It’s weird.

It was an alright Christmas book and I’m giving it an extra Christmas star, but I’m not a huge fan.

3/5

 

Dashing Through the Snow By: Debbie Macomber

Dashing Through the Snow By: Debbie Macomber

Plot:

Ashley Davison, a graduate student in California, desperately wants to spend the holidays with her family in Seattle. Dashiell Sutherland, a former army intelligence officer, has a job interview in Seattle and must arrive by December 23. Though frantic to book a last-minute flight out of San Francisco, both are out of luck: Every flight is full, and there’s only one rental car available. Ashley and Dash reluctantly decide to share the car, but neither anticipates the wild ride ahead.

At first they drive in silence, but forced into close quarters Ashley and Dash can’t help but open up. Not only do they find they have a lot in common, but there’s even a spark of romance in the air. Their feelings catch them off guard—never before has either been so excited about a first meeting. But the two are in for more twists and turns along the way as they rescue a lost puppy, run into petty thieves, and even get caught up in a case of mistaken identity. Though Ashley and Dash may never reach Seattle in time for Christmas, the season is still full of surprises—and their greatest wishes may yet come true.

Review:

I thought the premise for this was interesting, what happens if you’re on the no fly list and can’t fly home for the holidays. I really liked the subplot going on, it provided a nice contrast to the sweet romance that was developing, though the bumbling FBI agent is an older overused trope.

Ashley was fine, kind of boring, and I don’t think it was ever explained what she was in grad school for. Dash was boring too, though, very close lipped and vague about stuff. It was really just slightly more than a short story and wouldn’t have been that without the side plot. It also kind of annoyed me that their names were so similar, they had a lot of things in common actually, back story wise. Honestly apart from the initial premise the story was unimaginative.

If all you’re looking for is a sweet Christmas story than this is perfect.

3/5

Charmed: The War on Witches (Charmed Series #1) By: Paul Ruditis

Charmed: The War on Witches (Charmed Series #1) By: Paul Ruditis

Plot:

Having won the ultimate battle against the forces of darkness, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige—The Charmed Ones—are looking forward to a hard-earned, peaceful future. But when Phoebe’s former love, Cole, returns from the dead and the sisters are reunited with Prue, now imprisoned at the magical convergence between the realms, a dangerous new threat emerges.

As seemingly normal mortals violently steal the magic of witches, The Charmed Ones must shield their kind while protecting themselves from a modern-day witch hunt.

Charmed: The War on Witches continues the story of the Halliwell witches, picking up where the hit television series, Charmed, left off. With only the Book of Shadows to guide them, the Halliwell sisters are the fulfillment of their ancestor Melinda Warren’s prophecy that three sisters descending from her line would become the most powerful witches of all time. As The Charmed Ones, the sisters use the Power of Three to protect the innocent and banish evil from the Earthly realm.

Review:

I used to love Charmed. I watched the show live, muted, with closed captioning because my parents would have grounded me if they’d caught me watching. I took that risk, though, because I loved the sisters and their world. A few years back I saw that they had made a comic book for a season following the last, I bought the first volume immediately but ended up not liking the art or really the story so I didn’t continue. Still, I would randomly look into the series and recently decided to try this book.

The War on Witches takes place after the comic and if you haven’t read it you’re going to be confused at first. I know I was, I ended up finding a plot synopsis online for the comic to catch myself up. I can’t say I’m actually fond of having Prue and Cole back, but I can see why they did it. They are some of the fans two favorite characters and book form is the perfect way to bring them back.

The book ended up being almost exactly like the show and I loved that. However, there were times when the characters didn’t quiet sound like themselves and that wasn’t really helped by being able to see inside their minds for the first time.

There were demons, warlocks, reference to past episodes, and family drama, it was exactly what you’d expect from an episode of Charmed. Really, my only complaint is that I wish there was more about the family and Leo.

3.5/5


Side note: I bought this on sale, it doesn’t appear to be on sale now, it is not worth paying $9.99

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) By: Claudia Gray

 

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird #1) By: Claudia Gray

Plot:

Cloud Atlas meets Orphan Black in this epic dimension-bending trilogy by New York Times bestselling author Claudia Gray about a girl who must chase her father’s killer through multiple dimensions.

Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their groundbreaking achievements. Their most astonishing invention, called the Firebird, allows users to jump into multiple universes—and promises to revolutionize science forever. But then Marguerite’s father is murdered, and the killer—her parent’s handsome, enigmatic assistant Paul— escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite refuses to let the man who destroyed her family go free. So she races after Paul through different universes, always leaping into another version of herself. But she also meets alternate versions of the people she knows—including Paul, whose life entangles with hers in increasingly familiar ways. Before long she begins to question Paul’s guilt—as well as her own heart. And soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is far more sinister than she expected.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores an amazingly intricate multi-universe where fate is unavoidable, the truth elusive, and love the greatest mystery of all.

Review:

Lost Stars was an incredible book, because of that I needed to try something else by Claudia Gray. A Thousand Pieces of You is about parallel universe and traveling to them, if that isn’t right up my alley I don’t know what is.

A Thousand Pieces of You is about traveling between universes, it’s got a system all worked out, it does it multiple times, but that isn’t the main point of the book. The main story is a freaking love triangle! Ugh. Other people might not feel that way, the characters certainly wouldn’t, it’s not about who she loves that way it’s about finding who killed her father and what the hell is going on, but there was just too much relationship stuff for me to agree. Her struggle between the two was in every chapter and it annoyed me to no end.

The book was well written the world’s created were cool and well thought out, but I just couldn’t stand the main character. She was stupid, it was clear from the first chapter that something was wrong with her motivation and she didn’t question it, she just pushed on and it bugged me. I just kept wanting to get to the part where she was as smart as people kept saying and I had to wait until the end of the book.

If it wasn’t for those two things I’d read the next book, but I just can’t handle more of the relationship drama. She’s basically made her choice at this point, but I know it’s not going to be that simple, it can’t be in these types of books. Technically I believe this book was actually a New Adult instead of a YA, the heroine was a senior in high school but she had sex, so *shrug*

If you don’t mind any of the things I mentioned I recommend reading this, it has a nice fleshed out plot and I’m sure it will continue to be, but I just can’t go on and that makes me sad. I was really hoping that Claudia Gray would end up being another favorite author.

3/5

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10) By: Agatha Christie

Love this cover

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot #10) By: Agatha Christie

Plot:

Travelling on the Orient Express, Poirot is approached by a desperate American named Ratchett. Afraid that someone plans to kill him, Ratchett asks Poirot for help. Sadly the very next day Ratchett’s worst fears become reality, when he is found dead in his cabin, a victim of multiple stab wounds. With nothing but a scrap of paper to go on, Poirot must piece together Ratchett’s identity before he can establish which of his fellow passengers murdered him.

Review:

This is one of the most famous fictional murder mysteries and because of that I had the ending spoiled years ago. However, even though I knew ‘who done it’ I still really enjoyed the story. On the off chance anyone reading my blog doesn’t know the ending I won’t mention it because it’s that good.

It took me a while to finish this book. I’ve been in a reading rut lately and just haven’t been able to focus. I chose this book to get me out of my funk and by the end I think it might have worked.

Even though this book is older I had no difficulty understanding the language, though there was the occasional British reference that took a minute to process.

I loved Poirot as a character, the fact that he expected people to know who he was had me smiling. He’s nice but able to deduce things so much better than others and yet he still let’s them try.

I really love the whole gathering everyone together at the end and revealing the solution to the murder. It is one of my favorite tropes. Poirot does such a better job of it than Holmes, he doesn’t come off as an arrogant asshole, he’s merely put two and two together and figured out what everyone thought was impossible.

Murder on the Orient Express has been adapted, again, and will be released in theaters soon if it hasn’t been already. The casting looks great so hopefully they do this classic novel justice.

4/5